All That's Bright and Beautiful
by Lietus Zephyranthes
Summary: "Write a short paragraph: How's your experience with love?" That was Arthur Kirkland's first assignment at M. Academy after he had moved to the U.S., which in turn determined an unexpected partnering project for his freshmen high school year. Would he be able to find the answer? Would they? Modern AU. USUK.
1. Chapter 1

I can't love.

And believe me when I tell you that. I had my first kiss when I was 9 years old with a girl from my class. Now looking back, I might have been the only oblivious one. We were playmates from the start of school, always ate lunch together, even hung out with each other at every recess. I just never thought of it that way. One afternoon, she kissed me goodbye on the cheek for the first time. I thought it was weird but didn't think much of it. The time she kissed me again on my lips, I felt… oddly disgusted down to my stomach to be quite honest. I really hated the gross feeling... She probably didn't do anything wrong. It was so normal for other kids to hang out and have "girlfriends" even at such young age. It was just me. I realized that I was the weird one.

My name is Arthur Kirkland. I know it was weird how I didn't tell you my name at first, it was just awkward to say "Hey I'm Arthur and I felt gross when someone kissed me."I usually can't remember people's name at first. It would be so much better if someone have time to know more about a person first, then ask for their name, since now they have something to tell about the person, to differ them from just anyone out the world doesn't work that way. I feel uncomfortable when I forget people's name and have to somehow get their name again. But even more awkward talking to someone when you forgot their name. I'm full of contradiction, that might be why I didn't have friends. Remember the girl who kissed me? Now you know because… that was probably my only friend. And I was such a blunt kid who wouldn't hesitate to blurt out my feeling when she ask "How do you feel...?" She was my friend, but she didn't feel the same way toward me. She thought we were dating... Most girls back then thought I was cute, which I certainly don't feel that way toward myself or want others to feel about me. But that was primary school.

Then secondary school came about. The girls rarely approached me to be friends. The boys at school either ignore me, be nice to me and copy my homework, or sometimes ask if I can be their punching bag. Secondary did a number on my self esteem and social skills but that doesn't mean I didn't make it. Simply shitty secondary school years, where kids were still kids who mostly want to feel superior to others so they can hide their "insecurity". Honestly, I just... didn't have to be the one to take the pain and insults, so why me indeed? I spent those 5 years mostly hiding away from people, coming to school at exact time the bell ring, eat in classrooms or not eat and go straight to the library.

But I'm past that as well. Now that secondary school was no longer, there came "high school". And hopefully I'm left alone.

I moved from London, to some random town call City Heights in San Diego, California. I know it's a long way. My family couldn't stand seeing me anymore, so they probably sent me here to my Uncle Roger and Aunt Mitchell. They are… exceptionally nice, not a complaint about anything concerning me. They actually praise me sometimes for helping out with chores. I don't know how to feel about it when people are nice to me. I don't want to think all sorts of things like they are constantly watching me, making frequent calls to my parents, or telling them every shady thing that I did. They were just really nice, unlike my family, and I want to believe them. I shouldn't get started on this, but one thing I can tell you about my family is that… they never cared for me. They didn't care that I was making good grade at school. Or that I wasn't welcomed or safe at school. Now I understand that it's hard to keep eyes on "every little thing" when you have 5 children hanging about. I was the 4th in the family. _So special if I made good grade. Wow, how pitiful that I was bullied, could have stood up for myself. And if I couldn't, I always had my 3 brothers._ Well, helpful lots they were, always off in their own little lives. My third brother is okay but being in the uni. and rather popular, he' always hanging out with friends, being the attention of every gathering. My second brother in college hated me, since I was the ugly one with the eyebrows. Seriously, like none of our family has these bushy stupid eyebrows? Yeah right. That was probably just some lame excuse. For my eldest brother… he got married when I turned 5 and moved to Northern Ireland. Good luck, me.

For my parents, my dad was never home. He was always out drinking after work, what he call socializing and climbing the ladder that kept him out usually past midnight. Some weekends when he's home, he would be in his room, doing whatever fatherly thing in there alone in front of the TV or out again with his colleagues. My mom… I don't know how to feel about my mom. She's so busy with work and taking care of the family. She never fix me when I was all beat up or hug me when I cried (which I didn't, who told you that I cried), but she listened sometimes. Just once, when I came home late at 6 or something without my book bag around the winter of my 7th school year, and told her she didn't have to buy me new things since I'll probably find them soon (of course I lied, where would I find them when I just threw them in the garden's bushes to hide that it was all shredded and cut up, dirty and stink of piss from the toilet of the school's athletic building.) Just last year, she got on a long call one evening and afterward told me that I could study in the states after I finish the school year, my 9th year. My school's grade did me some good and would make me eligible for a study abroad program in America that was sponsored by dad's company as long as I would be okay living together with my Aunt or Uncle over there. I get the feeling she probably knew about the thing that was going on at school, how the first aid kit in the house went missing once in awhile and I always knew exactly where it is, why the bathroom light was on for hours some nights (mind you, nothing much going on, just me trying to patch myself up or wash my dirtied garments in secret, whatever that might mean). She never did anything else did she, though I don't blame her. Looking from behind, my mom is so fragile and skinny, but she is the strongest person I know. Eventually I gave up trying to understand how my family worked.

Now I'm 15 years old and today is my first day at this American "high school" called M. Academy. Did I tell you my aunts and uncle was nice? They still are, somehow. Uncle and Ant Roger has 2 small daughters. Aunt Mitchell is widowed and unrelated to my side of the family otherwise. It's almost unbelievable how the people around them are pretty nice to me too, like the neighbors. They didn't avoid my eyes whenever they see me. (I did though, out of old habit. It's what Brits do, avoiding others eyes. I think.) Instead, some of them wave at me or give me a smile. It always makes me feel a bit queasy inside whenever people do that to me in my home town, smirking at me. But so many people do it here; I doubt they meant any harm, unless they are all psycho murders with axes ready to kill me, which is even less likely.

Now… I can't believe how fast that got off topic. Again, I can't love. Simply as that. But sit in front of me, my first assignment, in literature class, first period, is this "bell work", what they called it, busywork after you walked in the class.

"Write a paragraph answering this question: How's your experience with love?"

What the blood hell of an assignment is that? Am I supposed to make up lies here, since I have absolutely no fucking clue what love is, except for that grossed out feeling when a girl kissed me?

I decided to cease cringing at that old memory, sitting in this chair, in a class I had no problem finding (since I left home early at 7:45 even when class doesn't start until 8:30), in the literature building, in this school. Just stop. Then I looked up at the teacher at his desk. Whoever is this stupid to give such an assignment. Blonde hair in a small ponytail. Blue eyes meeting my eyes (I swear, now thinking back, every teacher does this crap. How do they know they are being looked at?) And now he's giving me the smug face? Maybe just a "smile" then, since this is America. I avoided the teacher's eyes quickly to look around at the class. It seemed that I wasn't the only one not writing, or pretending to look like I'm giving some thoughtful seconds to this crappy assignment. People were talking, laughing, looking around like little ducklings, Oh, especially that one kid in the very front with a blonde lock of hair sticking up, bouncing in his seat, as he looked back. He was doing the very same thing I was doing. However, I knew he was different from me the moment he had his hand up high.

"Can I ask a question?" he asked loudly.

"Yes, after everyone's done. Now, just keep writing. Don't be shy, I'm the only one reading these of course!" The teacher winked and gave him a smile, and so the boy shut up.

So everything was quiet again. A few minutes until the "bell work" needed to be turned in. I didn't lie. I already told you I was a straightforward person. Instead, I wrote a paragraph about how much I love books. Close enough. I don't need people's love.

"Alright! Everyone's paper on this top basket." The teacher stood up from his chair and pointed to the black metal rack folder thing with his plastic hand pointer in about 5 minutes after the bell rang. America has so many weird things, mind you. Then the teacher hopped onto the podium seat and settled down, looking at the students returning back into their seats.

"My name is Mr. Bonnefoy~ I will be your AP English and Composition teacher as of this year. I also teach French, the foreign language, not the culture class. A pleasure to meet everyone." He said in a heavy French accent. Still, who allow a Frenchman to teach English ever?

"As far as self-introduction goes… I moved to the U.S. 5 years ago. I'm the school's home economic supervisor, Oh! I've seen some of you who joined at the class signup last week, and if you haven't, you can still sign up with me or the front office!" the man winked at the girls who were giggling in the corner, then gave some thought to whatever thing he was forgetting. "I'm currently single, but I don't see why I should tell you that… Ah. Someone had a question. Was it you?" He looked peculiarly at the boy who had his hand up earlier.

"It's Alfred!" the boy said cheerfully.

"Hello, Alfred!" the teacher waved at him with a friendly smile, then looked down at the paper on his podium, most likely the class roster. "So Alfred… Jones? What was your question?"

"I think the bell work is weird. What if we don't have any particular experience with love at all?"

"I find that to be surprising of a question, looking at you." The man's eye widened out of humor. "Now, why don't we proceed to introduce ourselves first, to make it more exciting, before we continue to talk about the whys? What do we think, since we don't have much to do for the first day anyway?"

I looked around. No one seemed to like the idea. There was about 20 students in class, and since there wasn't any seating chart for the first day, everyone seemed to form their own little group already, except for me and a few other kids.

"Okay, here we go! Start from Mr. Jones, if you please?" he clearly didn't get it, or as every teacher does it, they ignore the little details and go with the plan.

"I'm Alfred Jones?" he said again, more awkwardly this time. "I moved here this year from... Brooklyn, New York."

"Do you play sport or have any particular club in mind?" the teacher seemed to hint.

And Alfred's eyes fluttered wide open at the mention, it seemed. I just sat back and stared at those sparkling eyes. How cute, I yawned.

"Yes. I'm in football! I don't know about clubs yet though."

_Oh. Hopefully he's not a piece of garbage like most athletic kids I've seen all my life._

"That's great. Our school has a strong football team. And it's only the first day; you'll have time to figure out what you want to join." He smiled fondly at the boy. "Okay next!"

The Americans like speaking fast. It's hard to get into the habit of listening to this strange accent, though it was still English. I should be used to it soon, though it's going to bother me a bit how they require us to leaving out the 'u' and changing some of the 's' into 'z' when writing. I was so offended when I found out without doing that, I was basically misspelling words. Other than that, I really don't mind the accent, unlike how stereotypes about Britons go. Even if I did mind, what could I do? Tell the president to change it?

"My name's Kiku Honda. I'm from Japan. It's nice to meet everyone." The Asian student behind Alfred spoke up.

"Nice to meet you, Kiku…"

And then... I slowly zoned out from the boring thing. As I said earlier, I won't remember any of these names anyway so why bother. Of course there's still part of me who's excited about the new environment and who knows, there might be a kid at this other end of the world who would care about my existence a bit and actually want to be friends with me, the kind of friendship I've always pictured… But we can all dream. It's too good to be true.

After the aloof Japanese kid, there came two Italy brothers. Then a few American who have lived here all their life. And after that, more Asian kids. Korean, Thai, Burmese? California, no doubt. I'm mildly entertained by their stories by now, if the Frenchman stop talking it'd be just right, his accent annoys me, even in a class with everyone speaking in different dialects. Guess it's rather nice to have so much diversity in just one classroom. The other half of the class was full of Spanish or Caribbean descendant kids. America surely is a strange place.

Suddenly the class got really quiet. I turned around again to see what was happening. Meeting my eyes… was most of the classroom, including the teacher… well especially the teacher, I guess. A little flustered, I cleared my throat.

"I'm Arthur Kirkland. I'm from England. Nice to meet everyone."

"Nice to meet you, Arthur. Anything else you would want to tell us? Any hobbies?" the teacher "cooed" in that overly sugary voice of his.

"… I like reading." I muttered, and then to spare more questioning, added, "Fantasy novels, fairy tales, fictions that sort of thing."

"Fantastic! I'd have you know that later in this semester, our plan is to cover some of the most famous tales and folklores around the world. We shall have a great time then!"

Well, that's good to hear. I looked through the American's school curriculum online (not that I was really excited, just... preparations), and am pretty sure that I don't want anything to do with American modern literature anytime soon, even though my plan before I move was to major in Literature and Journalism. Wonder if they even have majors in U.S. "high school."

After me there were only a few kids left for introduction, two were Mexican, the other was Taiwanese, he strongly insisted, not Chinese. Even if the students are ethnically diverse, none of them really struggle speaking English. I wonder if they are all transfer students like me.

"So most of you are probably wondering why this class is so diverse." Mrs. Bonnefoy chimed happily.

_Yeah yeah, I get the feeling that we will be singing "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts" very soon._

"Our school is a unique private academy even among other private school. We built our own curriculum, as we have many students from abroad, invited from all over the world so we can share our experience together. And I truly believe that," he paused for a moment out of personal fondness and smiled, "we can bring out the most from our excellent students."

Well, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I probably won't get to experience the infamous_ American public school_ I've heard so much about, but something told me this is off to an okay start.

I think I'll be okay for now.

* * *

Song of the Day:** Fine on the Outside by Priscilla Ahn**

**A/N:** I really enjoy writing this story and hope you have just as good a time reading it!


	2. Chapter 2

You know what sounds cool? Living in a bustling and large urban city, losing yourself to the constant motions, the nonstop noises, the always flickering lights from a summer balcony, the sleepless highways and night skyscrapers.

I thought so too, even when I hardly remember how my life was in Brooklyn, NY from a long time ago. We move around too much for life to actually happen. If not for Dad's old friends, our relatives, and the short visits with my mom, I would say I mostly live in slightly big sheds here and there all over the continent.

But that was until I moved to this place. I don't know why but just then, I thought maybe I'd settle down. I don't mean somewhere grand like Florida with their humongous orange pride. I mean City Heights, just a small city most people probably haven't heard of. Where the sun doesn't burn in summer, the cold not to freezing in winter, the tornadoes doesn't sweep by every year, or is there hurricane eager to blow everything away. Okay, I admit there's just a little earthquake here and there… maybe twice or thrice a year... but of course that doesn't stop this place from being awesome over all! The oceans just a few minutes away, the colorful violet flowers in the local park, the warm air, the tall trees around the apartment building I'm living in, even the cicadas I usually find annoying are sorta...uh... Anyway, in San Diego, everything is just right.

Due to my dad's job, an archaeologist, freelance writer, and a self-made photographer, I got the opportunity to travel with him. Florida, North Dakota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Montana… almost all of them, save for a few like Alaska or Indiana. We literally have small houses everywhere for the convenience of traveling; if not, apartments or B&amp;B will do. I've also traveled outside of North America to down south Brazil, or even east to Cairo, Egypt and other places in Africa that I can't name all without boring everyone half dead. I love my dad and his pictures. I love how I got to experience the exciting life of a traveler with him.

But for once, I thought of settling down. Right here, in City Heights. I had thought of settling down for a while, but I made up my mind after spending the spring and part of summer all over California, then I tried convincing Dad to let me stay. I even got help from my cousin Amelia who is a graduate student at MU in Los Angeles. We begged Dad together and she even promise to be my guardian. After long discussions and sessions of ignoring my "joke" and… staring into my eyes through his thick glasses and questioning hums while scratching his stubby chin, calling mom (who was like "NO." at first but gave in after I pulled some stunts.) agreed with a shrug and a big smile. He agreed, of course with conditions, but of course I could care less what those were. I was staying. For the first time since I was 7, I was finally settling down for hopefully one whole year. On my own this time. In a small apartment room near the school, one floor above Mr. Roger's house (He's the owner, my dad's good friend. I'm not even surprised he had an apartment-complex-owner friends.) Dad told me to be independent and strong, and that, I think I would do just fine.

I believe in him, and I believe in me. I believe in everything that's bright and beautiful, like those starry nights on dusty excavation sites scarce of people in sight, or morning daybreak on the foamy beach playing with small crabs, waiting for my dad to be done with his "waiting for the right moment".

I still do, I convince myself, looking into this British boy's eyes, sweat sliding down my back out of nervousness.

Those green emeralds eyes, with long lashes, and bushy brows… though the way he looked at me reminded me of some kid I've met a long time ago in Cairo streets. The kid who made it off with my first ever camera straight outa my hands and ran off, a bunch of other kids after him. He only looked back once, and I remembered. All I felt was a fierce glare, full of doubt and envy, slight confusion from the fact that I was just standing still as he made his escape, and maybe even a bit of resentment from those pit black eyes. I didn't understand why at the time; I was barely 7 years old. But now looking back, it had to be it. I was a naive tourist kid with a shiny new toy, and he was a dirty slum kid, probably one of the many orphans I've always heard about. And the camera would have fed some money from a spawn shop.

"Hey! Um...Whatcha name again?" I tried for some cheerfulness.

"…Arthur."

Same look he's giving me, maybe a bit less fierce than the random kid that popped up in my mind. I'm still confused by it.

"Arthur, nice! You are from Great Britain, right?" I laughed off the nervousness I was feeling at the time and simply patted lightly his shoulder. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine!"

"…Right."

.・゜ . ・* [A few hours ago] *・ . ゜・.

This was the first class hour of the first school day of high school. Feeling the first, we started with a self-intro, talk about class rules and how things work around this school for the first 30 minutes of class. Mostly, we just discuss the safety rules, since M. Academy's student has lots of freedom compared to other schools, whatever that mean since I've never been to other schools. We are allowed to leave campus, have outside food or drink, more leaves and absences, cellphone and other devices usage, blah blah blah. But there's catch to everything that cool. And it's pretty mysterious too.

M. Academy was able to keep the student in line even with all the potential troubles for some reason. Most of the students were admitted by invitation, but the school still maintains a large number of student populations among other schools. As result, there are a lot of clubs and activities on campus. These are just rumors I've heard from other kids but there's supposedly secret committees among the school's clubs and they would manage to show up on the list of clubs and activities every year even though there's no way to contact them or sign-up. Even Mr. Bonnefoy denied their existence when asked by one of the student who had older siblings at the school and then he tried to change the topic.

"Ah, how should I break this exciting new for everyone? I can't believe..." Mrs. Bonnefoy leaned onto the wooden podium, his face brimming with bliss mumbling things while everyone else talk and get to know each other.

The man is trying for some serious suspense right here, I think. Since I haven't been in actual school for much of my life, I'm kinda excited. Can't wait to find out what sort of cool things actual school have, since I've been taking online classes for about 6 years now. Honestly, I didn't like that very much, though they make things easier for traveling and cut down my time in class so I can do other things, like playing baseball with the kids in the neighborhood. I guess I just wanted to experience the face-to-face lectures too, and make friends. Be in school. Be like other kids. Mostly making friends though. I have many friends all over of course. But I didn't know them personally. It's always great starting out and I would never see them again after I moved. That didn't discourage me from wanting to make friends at all though. Maybe if I have lots of friends everywhere, I'll see them again someday and we can go out for coffee or play football together. That would be awesome!

Mr. Bonnefoy was finally done with his fussing over whatever thing he must tell us, and is now beginning to actually say coherent things. He's such a funny dude.

"Some of you came to this school knowing what M. Academy is famous for. But I will just say it so everyone is on the same page. Our school traditionally holds a quadrennial partnering project. That means a 4 years long project that will span over your entire high school career here with us. Basically you will be making a book together with a partner each year!" He announced, his face brimming with happiness.

"As required by the state, everyone must take English/Literature classes in their high school years, just like the Sciences and Maths. It's one of those rules even our school need to abide by. Therefore, to make things more exciting, we came up with this project using different themes every year. Together with a partner, you will work hard to put together a beautiful work of passionate memor- I mean a book, ahem, yes. Each class will have their own designated theme chosen at the beginning of their year. There's no limit to what you do with it, as long as it goes with the theme. You can make it a journal, photo album, both, formal or not, whatever strikes your mood. The book will be a big fraction of your final grade in English/Literature class each year, and grading procedure will be basically the same even with the changing theme. We will hold an assembly in the main hall where specific requirements, FAQ, and details of the projects will be mentioned, as well as the contest prizes available this Friday. Another thing, before anyone ask, yes, the principal had informed everyone in the recent staff meeting that our school board had decided on the theme for this year. Now, who can guess what it is?" he looked around expectantly.

"Bet no one saw it coming! It was our bell work this morning! Yes, the theme is Love. Yes! Love~!" With excitement brimming in his eyes, he leaned forward and said it before anyone could actually guess.

Chatters filled the room as the French teacher stood up and waltzed back to his desk to get some flyers to pass out to the class while the Asian girls giggled and talked excitedly, the Chinese boy gasping in shock (or horror, or both), and one of the Italian boy jeering, making gagging noises while the other looked extremely confused.

Well, now there's the problem with finding a partner. I turned around to see the Japanese boy from behind. He happened to be looking back like me, at the group of Asians about 3 desks away.

"Do we get to pick our partner?" a guy's voice was heard from the back. It was... Chine-Taiwanese dude, his name is Long. I think.

"Not the first time. But no worries, you won't have to be stuck with your partner, though it is preferred." Mr. Bonnefoy winked. "Everyone will have the opportunity to change partner multiple times throughout the year. But! This is also where I should answer Mr. Jones's question from beginning of class! Right, Alfred?"

I… don't remember asking a question yet?

"Usually I never give bell work at all! But I had everyone did today's bell work for the purpose of picking your first partner!" he smiled.

"I will personally go through them now, submit it by lunch, and the list will be posted online this afternoon, so remember to check that. Well then, it's still 15 minutes until class is officially over. But as your future favorite teacher, literally; I'm your homeroom teacher," He said, matter-of-factly, "you are all free to go. Or stay, if you have nothing else to do. You are welcome!" He waved his hand, dismissing the class.

I walked out of the door feeling unsure. The project sounds exciting and definitely, possibly a really good opportunity to make some life-long friends, but I wonder who would be my partner. Please at least be a girl, I don't want to be writing about love with another guy how awkward that would be. But at the same time, please don't. Girls look like they are hard to talk to, and hard to work with, too. Seriously. Okay, they need to be someone I can get along with. Yep, that's the most important thing.

Time to get something to snack on and get ready for next class!

I got my phone out and logged in to the school's website for my schedule as I wait in the line to use the vending machine at the corner of the hallway. With a coke and chips in my hand, I sat down at one of the many chairs on the two side of the hall. I'm not that familiar with the Blackboard system that the school uses for student to access study material online. But it's still only the first week of school. I'll have plenty of time to get used to things.

My schedule is simple enough with only 5 classes, though I had had a hard time deciding what to take. There were so many more courses than online school, all available for every grade levels, and most aren't even mandatory, like the Stock Market and Investments, Eastern European Culture, or Speech and Leadership. I usually just take the required courses to fill my schedule in middle school, mostly the math and science ones. I just love math and science, because they are simple to understand, and I can get them done much faster than the boring essays and papers in history or literature.

But seriously, I can't wait until 4th hour for football! I have not ever been on a real football team, though I had once or twice, a week or the whole term, sneaked in the football practices that my friend, Nick, from Tennessee invited me to. I miss those great guys. Though that was so long ago… Wonder if he's still playing now. We haven't talked in a year or so; maybe I should contact him soon.

Wait. Why is there a 6th class? It was clearly 5 whenever I was signing up for classes… I looked over the schedule again. 1st period English/Comp with François Bonnefoy (Wow, who could have guess! His first name is Francis. Wow.), 2nd is Geometry with Matthew Williams (sound like an old man's name), 3rd period Art 1 (There's not a first/last name, it literally said Michelle? Okie dokie), then Lunch! Then 4th is of course FOOTBALL, 5th's Science Lab with… Von Dick (ahem correction Van Dijk… I think. Blame my glasses haha), and 6th is… "Undecided(?)", with Monica Bonnefoy.

Huh.

Let me call Mr. Bonnefoy. I clicked onto his name from my schedule and his contact info popped up. There we go. It said in the school's guide that your homeroom teacher has the answer for most general question.

"Hello Alfred! What do you want from moi?" His voice came after only 2 short beeps.

"Uh… wait, how did you know it was me?" I asked, totally weirded out by how casual he sounded.

"Your registration information, I finished adding everyone to my contact list. Now what, mon ami?"

"Oh, yeah. My schedule. I thought we only have 5 class hours."

"You are right, we only have 5 class hours. The 6th is for your clubs and activities. You filled out a clubs/activities preference paper."

"Oh right!" Duh, it even said so in the "(?)" pop up if you click on the question mark. Now that we got that out of the way... "By the way, do you happen to know someone named Monica? I mean Monica Bonnefoy. I have her for my club/activities hour."

"Oh Monica! My sweet cousin! I didn't know she took up Club and Activities this year. She usually teaches Stock Market and Investment, I wonder what happened. But yes, Alfred. She's my dear cousin. I did say in class that I was single." he laughed. I can even hear his wink.

"I was just wondering haha... Thank you sir," Oh dear. Pretty sure that's not what every teacher would tell you. Ya know, whether they are single or not.

Right then, the bell rang, signifying the next class starting. I hurriedly stuffed my chips and rush to geometry.

・ *・ . ゜・.[5th period: Physical Science and Lab]・ *・ . ゜・.

Just got back from Football. I feel like going home. Now. But it's only 2:20 in the afternoon. One more class to go and then I'll drop by the club room. Hopefully it will just be a meet and greet, because I'll be gone from here like there's no tomorrow. It has not been a bad day. Not at all. Just… I'm a little bit overwhelmed by Real School experience. Everything has been kinda a blur to me. All these people talking. And I made some friends. Which in turn, I made friend with their friends. And their friend's friend. I barely remember their faces now.

Geometry was cool. Mr. Williams was the nicest dude ever. Quite the quiet one and sometimes I zone out since I can barely hear, but he look like he enjoy teaching, although I did feel bad because no one noticed he was in the room until like 10 minutes past by and everyone stopped talking to start looking for him. On a positive note for me, I made 2 new friends, Toris from Lithuania, and Raivis from Latvia. This is feeling more and more like an international school where there's at least one person from each country in the world. Who is running M. Academy? No one should have this much power!

Third period went by fast. A really pretty lady in a blue dress and red ribbons on her two pigtails showed up. She apologized for being late because she had some errands to do, then went into introducing herself, as Michelle, insisting that we should be on first name basis. Then we just went over class setup, like how most of class time would be outside independent drawing, and that the art room is always open, so we can use any supply in the classroom as we need.

Lunch was great, the food is good. But that's where the overwhelmed feeling begin.

So. Many. People.

Like a fuck ton! And so diverse. I didn't know I was getting myself into this when my dad casually said that there's just this nearby high school from Mr. Roger's place. People are flocking around in groups, especially the Asian kids. They must be like over half of the school's, or at least in this lunch period, since I know the school even split students' lunch schedule into 3 different timelines. And they all sit together and talk in their different languages, like they already knew each other from ages ago.

Hell, I kinda wish to be friend with them. Raivis and Toris told me they both had 1st lunch already, while I have 2nd, so here would be my chance to make some new friend!

After running into some girls from first period standing in line(they even gave me their numbers woot woot) and even some friendly upperclassmen... I ended up spotting my Geometry teacher sitting alone from the nearby corner of the room, Mr. Williams (what surprise!) and instead of going to sit with someone my age that I didn't really know, I just had to come to his table. Can't blame me, he was alone like me! We had a good talk about his hometown Toronto, Canada, because I spend a few weeks there before heading further north. He's a new teacher, no wonder he looks just around the same age as us, and we found out many things he have in common. Almost felt like too many things in common until Dad called me to ask how things were going and that I should say hi to my cousin Matthew who teaches there. I was like "Yeah right, like I have a cousin named Matthew." "Matthew William," he said. Also mentioned that we used to play together a lot when I was a kid. And I, as a terrible person, myself, forgot all about him until now. I almost flipped out, and turned around and straight up asked a certain Williams if he was my cousin (how awkward it would be if he wasn't, right?). He said that he thought he did mentioned it, though he probably forgot. It was freaking wild! We were (of course) on first name basis by then.

Football hit me hard, literally. After some tours with other freshmen and warm-up, we threw around some balls and I was super excited to be there. The field and practice facility was humongous and shiny almost. And the guys, especially upperclassmen, seems to like me a lot too. The rest of time in class though was a whole different thing. Though I knew it was coming, there's a lot more to just signing up for the class. This is where I found out why Football didn't have much information on Blackboard, except for a link to the school's football site. You are not staying in the class unless you make the try-out. Many of the kids in there have already done the try-out before summer and spots are therefore more limited now. The actual class is much more than the image I had of it from when I was still with Nick and his team back then. But that was middle school, so it would make sense for high school football to be more competitive, right? Right.

I got out of 4th hour feeling very pumped, although the restlessness didn't leave me. Sitting 10 minutes into 5th hour now, I still can't help but think about the many papers we just went over that's tumbling in my bag now.

Until a very spiky and eye catching hairstyle got into my vision. A man in white lab coat and a long scarf (?) walked in and stood in the middle of the class until everyone noticed him (which is almost instantly). Then he spoke up.

"This is 5th hour, and since it's your first day of school, you all know the drill. Just chill. We starts tomorrow. I'm Mr. Van Dijk. I don't expect all of you to know Dutch; and since I'm also a soccer coach, just call me Coach D or Mr. D. I have high expectation of you guys. This class's grade depend heavily on tests and lab assignments. Just so we are clear, I don't ever let you make up lab days, so try to be here when it's scheduled. Your books should be online, anything else, I will provide in class. So, questions about anything, email me, don't call. You can now go tour around the science building, go see where the labs are or whatever. Don't touch anything though! Take this map," he pointed at a stack of handout, "all rooms should be in this building. We are done for the day."

Then he walked right out.

That was… Okay? Unusual? He gets straight to the point and was done before we could say anything. Well, doesn't matter, it's science. And there was really nothing much to say. Anything else, the other teachers should have already covered. He seems to be in a hurry though.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated. An important notification from the school's email. Oh right, there's the partner thing! Oooh I wonder who it is!

A long table of names appeared in the attachment. I thought we only have around 21 people in our class. Where did all these names come from?

Hm… Pretty sure Ludwig Beilschmidt is not in Mr. Bonnefoy's class, he's in my 2nd period . Okay, this is starting to look like the whole class of freshmen instead of just our little English class.

Alfred F. Jones. There we go. Ugh I hate Dad for insisting that we should keep the F in my name. He thinks it's cool. Now, I think it's cool too, but he's much more passionate about it, I'd rather say I hate it just to go against him. It's complicated, and really... sorta stupid.

Arthur Kirkland. That does sound like a boy's name through and through. Wait, it's really familiar too. He's that Brit kid from first period. Well, he looks kinda… dark… in his black clothes? Yes. Ugh, I can't find word to describe things. Or people. And he just happen to be one seat up, and to the left from my row in this Science Lab class too. I guess everyone else is busy on their phone looking at the list too. Then suddenly he turned around and we met eyes to eyes.

"Guess I'm your partner." He said with a calm face.

"Hey! Ar- Um...Whatcha name again?"

Oops, there I go. Me and my brain fart. Great first move, Alfred.

* * *

**A/N:** I gave up on making this school anything like normal high school. Well, I guess things start to get interesting from now on o v o)/

Song of the day! **Turnin' - Young Rising Sons**

Thanks for reading :)


	3. Chapter 3

_'What the fuck. Literally. What. The. Fuck._

_Arthur you can do this shit. You can sit still, and take this like a man. Wait no you can't. What the fuck is this French dude even about? Love? Long ass project? Partner? Whaaat?'_

This has been… a dramatic reading of an internal conflict from your truly, a certain 15 years old boy on his first day of school. Literally what happened.

I- okay. Let me breathe in. Then breathe out. No. Fuck this school. I'm going home. Fuck you class for being super cool with this. Why isn't anybody freaking out? Are all Americans used to this? This shit is too scary- wait! There's someone raising their hand? Could you be… Taiwanese kid. Please tell me you don't get it. Please tell me the huge frenchy fry over there need to slow the fuck down and explain what's going on.

"Do we get to pick our partner?" he chimed.

Kill me.

.・゜. ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

So, first hour was dismissed. I proceeded to blur out every strand of memory I've collected from that class in order to stay calm after my internal explosion, which costed me some time recovering. Glad the class was dismissed soon enough for me to get a grip and not be late for 2nd hour. So much for the okay feeling from the beginning of class. Hopefully, things will work itself out without me fucking things up … somehow.

Let's pack up and move out then. To the next destination, which is… the library.

Yes, my soon-to-be home.

…

"Firstly, if you are not even in the class, you better grab your belonging and move from the class area to somewhere else, the longue, whatever. I'm not here to watch a bunch of kids talk, play cards, or burst in some sick dance moves right in my class! I'm talking about you over there. Third year, Mr. Gilbert Beilschmidt!" The Hungarian lady raised her voice, directing it straight at the significant member currently occupying the furthest table away, but still nowhere close to being hidden beside a revolving bookcase.

"Aww what's the big deal, teach? It's just self-study." A rather tall in status male stood up, scratching his head as he stuck his tongue out at the woman. Apparently, he had been attempting some magic trick with cards to show off to his friends, and of course, failed miserably, resulting in cards flying everywhere.

The librarian, Ms. Hedervary had been holding back from the moment they walked in and sat down close to us, considering this is a school library, and every student should have access to it. But she finally blew a fuse after a card flew over and land directly in her face from where she was standing.

I have no words. This is not a library. This is a zoo. God is not real.

Finally, after getting the rowdy boys out of the library, Ms. H got back on her pace and resume talking to us, the small group of roughly 15 students.

"So, as I was saying, Library Self Study is a rather new 30 minutes elective class for students who wish to better their studying skills while still working on other class's assignments. Considering it's available as an option for those who chose to have more than the 15 credit hours, this class can be use for all of you hard-workers, for example, who are in the school's choir, orchestra, or sport, to work on your homework and get help. Feel free to use all the resources available. Yes, I see a hand going up! What's your question, honey?"

"So I know each usual class is approximately an hour. But if choir and orchestra is an hour and a half, and some sport is 2 hours, how is it fair for them when compared to people who are not taking sport, orchestra or choir?" a curious female student with short, blond hair asked. I'm a terrible person since she's literally from my last class. I'm not even going to admit that the student introduction helped a lot with some names. Just because I hate that French dude.

"That's a really good question, Lisa! These are covered in our handbook but I guess it is really confusing for new student. You should refer to the classes as courses instead of hours to lessen confusions. The minimum is 5 mandatory courses a semester and 30 required credit hours each year. The time period of each course is based on the request from the teacher in order to make the classroom quality better for you guys, of course. However, the time difference does matter. Courses that runs longer tend to be worth more credit hours. This is easier to understand since football and orchestra does tend to require much more from students, right? Also, there are courses that has a lab component which is more lengthy and should be worth more credit too, like Chemistry, Calculus, Physics, etc. It's all a fair game since everyone still need to make those 30 credit hours anyway, right?" she nodded smartly.

The class nodded in unison.

"Now, the time difference is still a problem. Students who are taking all 3 credit hours classes, for example, would have a one hour break each day, while orchestral students would have a 30 minutes break. But, gaining more than 15 credit does have it's perk. The overachievers first semester will get to register for spring class early and the at-least-5-courses-a-semester rule would not apply for them anymore, only completing the remaining credits for the year. Second semester could be more relaxing for them with potentially double the break time saved from first semester if they choose! But you guys are smart. Of course that usually mean going to class later in the day or leaving school early, right?"

Again, the class nodded in awe at the sparkling librarian.

"Okay any other questions? I'm always at school from 7:30 in the morning to 7:00 at night so drop by and visit anytime. Oh, and that's except for the lunch periods. I won't be here from 10:00-1:00, but you guys can still come, no problem."Ms. H said cheerfully as she leaned back to her chair. "Well, the syllabus is on our course page. All of you can just talk quietly for now since class should start tomorrow. Don't make a mess. And don't use books for anything other than reading."

I sat there, pretending to look occupied with my phone. With nothing to do, I turned around, mostly watching Ms. H as she pulled a student file up on one of her two computer monitors.

"Back to this. Why does he always do that at the beginning of every week, that brat…" she murmured under her breath as she fill in what I assumed to be a report or an email. Probably something to do with the rowdy group before her grand revelation to the class.

Time flew by quickly in the library as everyone just sat back for their first day of class on their phone or tablet. Class was over soon before anyone notice the clock ticking close to 10 a.m. and the librarian grabbing her purse to walk out.

"You guys can leave anytime, okay? I have to to go. Lunch duty!" she said aloud, almost sing songy.

…

"This school is so great compare to my middle school. But it stresses me out!" a few freshmen were still talking. I could hear them more coherently since some of the kids left as soon as Ms. H walked out the door.

"You should be! I'm a sophomore, and some upperclassmen I know said that the school reevaluate your grade at the end of every term. And if you fail your classes, you might get kicked out of the school. Not that I know of anyone who've actually been kicked out…"

…

_Oh._

Hmm.

Well I don't give a hoot. I have the feeling that I can get through Lit/Comp's daily work just fine, this class is basically a blowoff class. Next class, Government and Civic should be okay. The only problems would be Physical Science/Lab. And the project that doesn't make sense from the Lit. class., that would be a good chunk of the final… Ugh, my head hurt thinking about _partnered project_… And group science lab work… If only they didn't require at least one Math and Science for each term!

And weirdly, there's this time slot for extracurricular activities assigned at 3 o'clock… Which school even give you a class to be in a club? It's not really required… right?

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

I waked out of the library, looking through the many tall shelves. Kinda glad about the quiet section. And the tall ceiling, and the fancy wooden shelves. The many books. Not so much for the computer lab right next door, but... it will be helpful. Kinda glad about the library looking old but not beat up. Being glad about the library shall be my highlight of the day. Until I walked out, only to encounter a certain Alfred from this morning, strolling down the hallway, waving and saying hi to some other students. I turned away and avoid other people's eyes walking by as usual. The amount of eyes after him is insane though. Girls and some guys alike. Can't blame a stud for his good look, I guess. But he was looking nervous the whole time first hour (mindless things that I noticed before my own nervousness took me down). What does a guy like him have to worry about, really. If I was him, the entire school would probably know me by the end of first week. Bleurgh. Too many people in contact. How does people like that not get an allergic reaction from the sheer amount of socialness. I know I will, from just have like… 5 friends. Even friends with benefit anyway.

Government and Civic was exactly what it said. Boring history. We actually did something even on the first day, like watching some sort videos about " 'Merica and why we learn about our Rights". Then the American teacher gave us an outline of the work we will do in class. To be short, we write vocabulary, read the book, have quizzes, and practice the rights American has. Everyone seems to be either very passionate about the class and participating *cough true American* or just in a daze at how the American could give themselves all the credits for everything *cough me and all the studying abroad kids cough*. Well, this should be interesting to see now.

Then I left for lunch. The cafeteria was located in between two linking buildings. It's spacious, has a new and modern feel to it, and is clean. Most of the students eat outside at the many round, cute little tables and some long tables, scattered under the tall trees in the courtyard. The sun really doesn't bother them at all, and if it does, then there's also tables inside the cafeteria as well. For me, I know where I'm sitting all year round immediately. That one inside table in the corner, close to the exit, with trashcan right outside the exit door. And luckily it's not occupied.

The food tasted strange, but not bad. I might just consider cooking myself, if I have free time and miss English food that much.

.・゜ . ・* [That night] *・ . ゜・.

The day didn't get any better, just like I thought. It's always the first day that suck. So far, we got a notification from the school's email, same one that sent out all the things like school guide book, BlackBoard login information, the weather(?)... And it's the list. The hand picked or possibly computer generated random pairs of names. And I got stuck with who? Alfred. Why on earth, of all the people.

Imagine school tomorrow though. Two random girls have already messaged me to have a chat privately about switching partner, in which I "politely turned down" (that means ignore), as Alfred is also involved in the matter. I've also been looking around for more info, as no one have time to sit back and wait until Friday for the assembly talk. Everyone on the school forum is going nuts with all these new discussion threads that freshmen started to ask for advice from upperclassmen. After some "research", it turn out the process isn't even hard, accepting that paperwork needs to be done. A single paper with both partners signed and reason why. Then another immediately to fill in the new partner. That was it. And it could just happen anytime until the end of next week.

Today is only a Wednesday. And everyone is switching partner right now. From best friends to boyfriend/girlfriend if they had one. Now, of course it's awkward for a straight-as-can-be guy/girl to be doing a project about Love with another straight guy/girl. But still, people need to calm the fuck down. It's not like a gay/lesbian endemic just broke loose. Just by doing a project with another guy won't turn you gay! It won't!

This school have some nerve to even get that theme accepted. Maybe this country doesn't care about the whole public display of affection in school? Whaaat.

So I've decided to close the laptop lid, sitting on my bed, in the apartment room net to many apartment rooms, occupied by a large number of other studying abroad kids.

So far, M. Academy seems to have lured me here, surrounded me with its weirdness, and slowly swallowing me up into its many obstacles to come. Or that's just strange old America. Who can tell. I'm going to sleep, as tomorrow will be an even longer day.

. - *oOo* - .

_"Txt me when ur done with_

_club thing. We'll try to meet up_

_and talk more :D"_

-From Alfred F. Jones,

Wednesday, August 21 11:20 AM

* * *

Song of The Day: **Bleachers - Wake Me**

**A/N:** *does the jazz hand* Tada! Yes, I know I have no decency as a human~

I'm buried in guilt from my stagnating updates. But you know you love it ;D Thanks for reading, guys. Your reviews made me very happy, I just had to write quickly!


	4. Chapter 4

A long day awaits me as I woke up this morning. I can feel it in my bones. It's only the second day of school. I'm excited, but it's really a lot of work getting up. And Arthur hasn't text me back. You might be wondering how I even got his phone number in the first place. I didn't. It's there and accessible for me, since I'm his writing project partner, on his school profile (these are password locked from the public, thank god!) Also, to clarify things, they are not really the actual phone number. They are the school's version of fake Google phone number that forward stuffs to your phone. Seems like the school got me an M. Academy Student account that leads to a Blackboard account for class, forum, discussion, grade purpose, a school email account and a phone number, all integrated together. I like how I can access everything with one sign-in, but it's kinda scary. I know me and my dad filled out a bunch of papers at the start of the school year, but I can barely remember what we wrote down, or how much information we gave the school?!

It's already 7:34. I should get out of bed soon to be able to catch breakfast before class. I heard from Toris that the breakfast food is usually even better than lunch, with a cereal bar and a buffet options of hot breakfast. Let's see... checking my email... they have French toast, sunny side up, pancake, bacon, biscuit and gravy, fruits for Thursday 21st. I suddenly feel very awake now. Dang the school and its manipulative breakfast. Was all schools like this? I don't remember from elementary school?

.・゜ . ・* [Afternoon] *・ . ゜・.

Arthur didn't talk to me the entire time. Well, we sat far away from each other in 1st hour. And everyone was busy listening to the Coach D lecturing in science. We texted though!

.

~.oO*Oo.~

"Okay where are you right now?"

-From Arthur Kirkland,

Thursday, August 21 3:20 PM

~.oO*Oo.~

.

.

~.oO*Oo.~

"Just finished with astronomy.

Meet me at the front gate?"

-From Alfred F. Jones,

Thursday August 21 3:23 PM

~.oO*Oo.~

.

"Hey." Arthur bumped into me in the Fine Art building just minutes after I got his text. I was kinda surprised that he seemed to have not carried anything but a book with him.

"Sup Arthur!"

"Hi."

"Let's get something to eat first. Where'd you wanna go?"

"I don't know, you choose."

"Burger King then? It's only a few blocks away."

"Sure." Arthur looked a bit uncomfortable, but he still went with me anyway. The street was still full of fumbling people, mostly parents and their kids walking home from the middle school and elementary school nearby.

"So what club are you in? I was forced into Astronomy by the club advisor yesterday." I tried to lighten the mood, still remembering how Mrs. Bonnefoy successfully converted almost half of the students who showed up into the new Astronomy Club.

"Book Club and Magic Club. I might join some other clubs if I have time."

"You can join more than one?" I gasped. Why doesn't anyone talk about this? This is so freaking important! I was having a crisis yesterday between Photography or Astronomy.

"Yes, I just signed up for them on the day we register for class. Did you not?"

"I think I put myself down as Undecided and that was done. Dang. What happens when you try to rush through the pile of paperwork…"

"That's alright. I think most did too, since my club gained like 10 more people today."

We got there in less than 10 minutes. I went and fill my drink while Arthur ordered his things.

I took a sip from the coke and look down to the table. It's too quiet.

Arthur seemed to catch onto the mood too. He shifted in his seat and slid his book to the side.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Arthur cleared his throat.

"Oh, just… I thought we should, ya know, get to know each other more. Since we're partner and all."

Shit. I'm sounding like a schoolgirl.

"Oh, yes. About that, have anyone emailed you?"

"Huh what?" Nah, not really. There's Kiku who sits behind me in first period. The Baltic kids, some girls in art, football guys I've become friends with at lunch today…Uh...

"Like someone wants to be partner with you?"

"What? No?! I mean everyone have got to have someone as partner already, right? Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've received about 4 or 5 emails so far from girls asking to switch partner. So yeah, if you want to, I don't mind. I can forward them to you so you can-"

"Wait what? Arthur wait. We haven't even started! I mean,I kinda want to get to know you more. And uh… oh yeah! Do you have any idea for another partner yet? You'll need someone too, if we switch." I cut Arthur off mid sentence. Nice save, me. I really thought hard about having a girl as partner and so far, I think I would feel much more comfortable with a guy. Really don't want to be pair up and called names like some cliche shoujo manga. Not that I read them of course haha why would I!

"It's fine. I'll just group up with her partner. I can pull the emails up. "

No Arthur nooo.

"It's not fine. Now slow down a bit so I can understand you, okay? And we have time. I don't even know who those girls are, probably." I said in the most convincing voice I can think of.

"Why? Don't you want to be partner with a girl instead?"

"Well yes, I do. But I don't. I don't know… I'm not very good with girls. And it'll feel awkward to partner up with a girl, doing a project over Love, don't you think?"

It's almost like you are required to date if you ever get partnered together. Seriously. I can feel my face heating up from trying to make legit argument and also from the thought. What am I, a 12 years old middle schooler?

"As far as I know, most people are coupling up, though." Arthur said nonchalantly with a shrug and then in a smaller voice to himself, "You wouldn't want to be paired with me anyway."

"Yeah I know… but wait, what?" I didn't heard that last part.

"Nothing. I said nothing." He quickly covered it up.

"No seriously, what if I don't like them? It'll be awkward afterward." I laughed drily. "I'd rather give us a try first and it's less complicated that way, see?"

Yes Arthur, I just don't want to say straight out that I have no experience with girls whatsoever, as my dad literally whirl me places. And if he knows of this project at all, he would possibly send me Messenger heart stickers all week or secretly follow me places on my "dates" to take "cute" awkward pictures and send them to mom. I can see that happening. Ugh dad…

"Well that make sense, I guess…" Arthur scratched his head.

Yes! Thank you Arthur. Thank you.

"Yeah! So we should talk more and maybe if we get along, we can just stay like this. Doesn't that sound better?" I said, a bit rushed with relief.

"Ok, sounds good. Just so you know, if we do decide to stay like this, it will be until after Halloween that the registration open up again. Are you sure?"

"We still have time, don't worry. If we decide that we absolutely can't get along, then we'll talk more on this."

"Sounds swell. I guess I'll have to turn all of these emails down then. You want to know who they are from though?"

"Sorry about the trouble Arthur. Oh no thanks!" I laughed. Its best I don't know. It would be awkward if I act differently toward them after reading, right?

"Number 88, number 89!" The waitress said as she lay down the two trays of food. Great timing.

It seems that Arthur didn't get a drink though. Instead, he bought a bottle of water.

"Sure you don't want a drink?"

"No. I don't like the tea they have here." He said, dipping a fries into the ketchup.

"Yeah? What kinda tea do you like then?"

"Brewed. Not iced. My favourite is earl gray, but most day I just go with green tea."

"Hey! I like green tea, too!" I chomped on the burger and took a sip from the coke.

As I ate, I glance over to Arthur from time to time. How he wore a black sweater vest despite the weather outside. How he carried a book possibly everywhere. How he doesn't like the salad from the sandwich. Yes, he ordered a chicken sandwich despite going to "Burger" King.

"So tell me. You like books, right? What's your favorite books?"

"Uh...I read all kind of books. I'm reading a collection of short Norse Myths right now for class."

"You have mythology? Lucky duck! I almost signed up for that, but I guess the class is pretty full, isn't it?"

"Yes. Packed."

"I like mythology. They are not full of sappy love stories or boring text. You can tell I don't read a lot of young adult stuffs. But I like mystery and fantasy. One of my childhood favorites is The Series of Unfortunate Events. I've read quite a few from the U.K. too, like the Sherlock Holmes series or Harry Potter, but everyone read those. But I'm currently trying to get into the Lord of the Rings but it's so long!"

Arthur paused a bit, just stared at me without words, which is really surprising since he haven't met my eyes for more than a fragment of second since we've met. Then he broke the eye contact and continued to nibble on the fries again.

"I liked them too, the Sherlock Holmes books. It has been so long though, so I might need to read it again."

"I have the digital copies of Sherlock Holmes, if you want."

"No, it's fine. I don't own a Kindle. And I probably don't have them back home anymore so I might just buy the series again online."

"Do you not like Kindle? You get to read more books, and it's more convenient! No more carrying 5 books around! For example, those LOTR books! Or Harry Potter!"

"I guess you do have a point." Arthur smiled at my hand gestures. Then he noticed that I was looking and cleared his throat a bit. "It's a personal preference sort of thing. I just like physical copies better I guess."

I kinda get the feeling that he's not comfortable talking with me. Maybe he's just shy?

"So what are your schedule this term? I know we are in… 2 classes together, right?" I took a sip from the coke again. Talk about awkward gesture. Two dudes eating together, trying to get to know each other. But man, imagine us as best bros someday though! It's gonna glorious... Ahem, I need to stop me.

"Yes. We have English and Physical Science together. I'm also taking Study Hall, Fictional Writing, Mythology, and Orchestra."

"Orchestra? Our school has an orchestra?" My god. This school is ridiculous.

"Yes? Do you play any instrument?" It seems like my question piqued his interest.

"Um…trumpet, and a little bit of trombone, drum, and the sax..." I felt a bit flushed. I've never told any of my friends about this.

"You know you'd be perfect in orchestra or the marching band, right? We have a marching band too."

"Oh, and I play the piano, not sure if that count. You think?" I smiled.

"Yes, Wait, aren't you in football? That's probably why. We can only one major elective every term."

"What's a major elective? Are there minor electives or something?"

"There are minor electives, short classes like Fictional Writing, Pop Quiz, that give you one or two credits. Normal classes like Physical Science are three credits. Then there's sport, orchestra, choir, and I guess marching band and cheer too, that gives you 4 credit hours. These are in the handbook we are getting tomorrow I think."

"Sounds complicated. I don't get it, but it's fine. I'm okay with being in football all year!"

Arthur paused for a long while to chew his food and eventually nodded. "I heard the team's tryout is very selective."

"Yeah!" I said, remembering the small warm-up session we did today as we were going over the agenda for the practice. "Yeah… Hopefully I'll make JV. What about you? Try-out for orchestra?"

"There is one. But I don't need to, since we have just the right amount of violinist. Not so much for clarinet or trumpet though."

"So you play a violin! Wow, I've always wanted to try it. But I broke my mom's old violin in 1st grade whenever she tried to teach me… I haven't had the courage to try again since," I laughed awkwardly, poking at the empty coke.

"You broke it? I can't believe you! Did you just snap the poor thing-" He leaned forward in shock.

"No, nothing like that! Jeez Arthur I was 6 years old! I broke the strings before I was able to make any violin sounding noise."

"O-oh." Arthur calmed down a bit and sat back down.

I burst out in laughter at his reaction."Two of the four strings. It gave me a few red scratches… It probably wasn't bad, but I was still a kid and it hurt! I was kinda traumatized by it…" I murmured through the drink.

"It's alright. That happened to me when I first started playing too. It never did again, though. You probably applied too much pressure, or the string was old."

There was silence between us for a while. I stood up to go throw away the trash. Arthur noticed, and did the same.

"You like chocolate or vanilla?" I turned over to his direction and said.

"Chocolate?"

"What about cookies? Do you like them?"

"Cookies… Oh, biscuits. Yes. Why?"

"I forgot you guys call it that." I gave a small smile and then walked to the counter. If we are gonna talk, I probably need more food. I got us two shakes and some cookies. Yep. Heal my trauma, and stomach.

The order was taken immediately by the girl behind the counter since there wasn't many customer now. I got back to the table and placed the chocolate shake in front of Arthur.

"You know you didn't have to." He thanked me nonetheless. I just grinned at him. It's nothing much. And Arthur looked more chipper.

"How long have you been playing?" I asked out of curiosity and also to get back on topic, of course.

"Hmm… about 7 years by now? I started quite early, around 5 years old, then stopped playing for a while…" Arthur looked deep in thought.

"Do you play any other instruments?"

"I can play a bit of piano. And guitar. I tried a bit of clarinet for one year, but I'm not very good at it." Arthur said, then reached for his water. "What about you? When did you start?"

"I'm not even sure. I didn't go to class or anything. Mom, Dad, and his friends taught me a bit of everything. They even had their own jazz band together way back. My favorite is probably trumpet and the piano although I'm sorta out of practice." I said bobbing my head sideway playfully.

"You can practice at the music building, you know. They have a grand piano in most rooms. Also, I think you can join the orchestra or band for fun without being in the class. We have morning and afternoon practice sessions." he said, as-matter-of factly.

"Ugh nah, I'm okay. I can't wake up in the morning, and we usually have football practice after school."

"Just a suggestion."

"I'll think about it. Maybe I can sneak into the music building from art class. We usually have class outside anyway."

"You have art?" he asked, picking at a small cookie.

"Yeah, I like playing with clay."

"Not much of an outside thing, is it?"

"Yeah. I talked to Ms. Michelle, the art teacher, and apparently, we don't work with clay until November. Guess I'll just stick around. I also have Geometry. Oh yeah." I just remember about Matthew.

"What?" Arthur looked up at me as he drank the shake.

"I found out yesterday that my geometry teacher is actually my cousin." I said with a straight face.

He almost spit out his shake. (His face was hilarious, btw!)

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

We finished the cookies and decided to go home, as it was almost 15 minutes until 5 o'clock.

"Well, that was fun. We should eat together again!" I gave a friendly smile at the boy as we walked out.

"Yeah."

I think Arthur opened up to me a bit more after today. And he almost forgot about the book he was carrying at the table.

"Arthur, your accent is really cool. You should speak more." I blurted out my thought without much thinking.

"Really."

"Yeah, you hardly speak at all in class."

"Oh yeah?"

"I really mean it okay?"

Like, I can hear him just fine, ya know, but it's not from the lung. It's just somewhere in his throat. I don't even know.

"You should try speaking out loud sometimes. It feels good." I concluded by initiating Arthur's cool accent and got a faced out of him.

Arthur really doesn't seem to speak much. Wait, I have an idea.

"Sit next to me tomorrow, will ya? We should sit together. I like getting to know you more."

"...Maybe not. I don't want to take anyone's seat."

We kept walking. The sun was setting now. The pleasant autumn wind brushed by, making me fall in love again California's autumn.

"Hey Alfred." Arthur said after a while.

"What?"

"Where is your house?"

"Oh I live alone. Just around the corner." I yawned, still enjoying the cool breeze. "Where do you live at?"

Arthur kept walking for a bit.

"Here."

A strong gush of wind washed over us, blown away the colorful leaves from the tall trees. The trees at the entrance of Mr. Roger's apartments.

* * *

Song of the Day: **Panic! At the Disco - When the Day Met the Night**

**A/N:** You guys are awesome for sticking with this very weird story about these adorable nerds. Reviews make me super happy! Let me know what you think of the story and maybe even suggestions of what you want to read next for future chapters! *blow kisses*


	5. Chapter 5

We were standing on the sidewalk in front of Uncle Roger's flats, or apartment buildings, whatever you might call it. The buildings are 2 stories, designed to resemble a connecting cube almost, with apartment flats facing each other, except for the two gates in and out, and a yard in the middle. The buildings are surrounded by pine trees and shrubs behind the short, maroon colored metal fences. His family lives in the first, most spacious apartment on ground floor. My room is immediately to the left with an interior of living (reading) area, small kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom. At first, they wanted me to eat with them, too, but I had to decline the offer. I've received a lot of things from his family already, I can't be even more indebted to them. I don't like being indebted to anyone. I can cook for myself just fine, but he usually bring food over anyway, so that I can try the "American food". Aunt Mitchell does that too. She's the nicest widow aunt I know, and she lives a few houses away from here. If I say someone is nice, they are fucking saints, okay? Believe me, she doesn't have to like me, but she really try. And I'm not a fucking piece of shit that can't appreciate people going out of their way to be nice. Back to to current situation though.

"Here." I said with an unexpectedly calm voice.

I don't even know what I was hoping. No, I definitely wasn't hoping. I was anticipating.

"Hey... I live here too..." Alfred said, his eyes widen by the seconds at the realisation.

"The fuck." I questioned myself, my eyes about to pop out too. The whole time we were walking, I expected Alfred to go down a different path anytime soon, and prepared myself for the 'My house is this way. See you tomorrow.' (yes I have practice inner conversations, don't judge.)

But it never came.

"Woah Arthur." Alfred let out a whispered, now looking at me intensely.

"Shit. Did I say that out loud?"

"Yeah!" he stared at me with undecipherable bright eyes and whistled. "Yeah I heard you. And I feel the same way, man. What the hell? This is the coolest thing! We actually live in same apartment house?"

I continued to have my mouth in an O until Alfred put his arm around my neck.

"Pal. We're goin' in." he grinned. His grin is different from the friendly ones I've seen so far today. Somewhat mischievous? Who is this?

"Where to?" I furrowed my brows and got away from his armlock, only to get my back pushed by him toward the building.

"Your place! Where else?"

"Hell no, Alfred. Why don't you go to _your_ flat?" I flailed my arm (totally didn't, but I didn't exactly just "struggle" to get away. I don't do struggle. Ever.)

"What? Are your parents here or something? I wanna meet them!" His grin widen a bit, that goofy lopsided grin that kids make.

"I live alone!" I almost wanted to shout. I'm not really angry, just a bit shaken up from not… being in my pace. And weirded out by the close contact. Surprised too.

"Then what's the big deal?" He replied with the usual cheerfulness.

As I was being dragged in, Aunt Roger was sitting at the front porch with her smallest daughter, Lesley, playing catch with the neighbor's children using a small ping pong ball.

"Hey there, Arthur. You are late today? Is that Alfred with you?" she smiled.

"Hello Mrs. Roger! He was with me!" Alfred gave a huge toothy grin at the lady as he continued to lead me inside.

"Oh great! You two are already friends?" she smiled as she picked up Lesley to give us a small wave.

Fucking babies and their cuteness. Babies are so precious... Wait, no. I need to get away from Alfred. I get distracted so easily, it's not funny.

"Yes ma'am! We are doing a project together for school. I'm visiting him for a bit."

Alfred Fucking Jones. We aren't friends. And no one said you can come.

I don't wanna act like I'm being forcefully dragged in front of my aunt, but I should think of a smarter solution than freezing up and walking along with Alfred on reflex. I stopped the awkward struggling, and so Alfred loosen his grip in my wrist.

"Take your time, sweethearts. Come over and eat with us again later, okay? The usual time!" she said to Alfred whilst trying to get the ping pong ball that had fallen into Lesley The Great's grip.

**Chance.**

I took off from Alfred's side and ran as fast as I could to my door. Of course I have the key ready in my pocket, and can easily slip behind the door before Alfred can catch up to me. So I did.

Alfred immediately noticed me running and started running too. Of course he was a second behind. By the time he got close, I was already behind the other side of the door. Ha! What now, Alfred? I stood back, hands on hips after locking the door, enjoying the victorious feeling.

**Click.** The lock did a 90 degrees rotation. The next second, Alfred was inside, grinning so much it even reach his eyes.

"Aha!"

I rushed out reach for my key. But Alfred, of course, happened to be a bit taller, bigger, and stronger than me. After a while, I gave up, as he placed the key in my palm, walked in, and did a small victory bow.

"Thank you!" he laughed.

It's ridiculous. I forgot to take the key with me in my hurry.

I was so close... And in my hypothetical tears and burning face, I started laughing too. At myself. And how ridiculous we must have looked to Aunt Roger outside. Also how ridiculous we look now, out trousers and shirts wrinkled and messy. I don't even know what was so funny but we couldn't stop laughing. It was contagious.

I sighed loudly and took a deep breath, trying to stop laughing while Alfred was still dying in the corner. Alfred is so weird. I don't even know why I didn't get mad at him. He basically broke into my apartment!

I've learn more about the guy just from this afternoon than I ever imagined. He reads, draw and play music. He is, in a way... so open and easy to talk to?... I felt that I wronged him this afternoon, for lumping him with all the althetic arseholes I've dealt with in my earlier years. But none of that crossed my mind at the time. We were two grown-arse high schoolers, chasing each other like dumb elementary kids.

"Sorry Arthur. I probably went overboard with my prank." Alfred breathed out and took his glasses off to wipe away the tear from laughing too much.

"Whatever, arsehole." First mistake, I almost stuck out my tongue in his face as an act of rebellion. Second mistake, without much thought, I took off one of my socks and threw it at him.

"Hey!" Alfred protested, then took off his shoes and hurled it in my direction, his face grinning like an idiot again.

"That fucking hurt, buttface!" I shouted out loud after blocking it with my palm.

I threw it back at him, harder this time. He blocked it with his arm and picked up my indoor slipper that was sitting at his side.

"You started it!" he glared playfully at me with a smirk.

"No, you started this entire mess!" I raised my voice, trying to hold down the laughter and keep my face from breaking into a larger grin as I grabbed two other slippers from the cupboard.

Whatever power Alfred had, I have to admit, his laugh was definitely contagious.

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

After we were done with the… "shoe fight", in which I took...ahem… no initiative, it was entirely Alfred's fault…I went and prepare tea. (Not for him! I told him to fuck off, but he insisted upon staying and cleaning up the mess, so I guess it's fine.)

"Drink, then leave. You are done fixing my shoe cupboard, right?" I said, placing the cup of tea on the counter.

"Yeah. Aren't **we** going to Mrs. Roger's house for dinner though?" Alfred, whose eye was wandering around my apartment, poked his head up from behind the counter and made a face that somewhat resembled a "pout".

Come on kid, I am not your parent.

"I don't usually eat there." I said curtly, as I head over to sofa chair in the living room area, sat down, picked up the forgotten mythology book from this afternoon, and sip on some tea.

Alfred stopped his snooping around and sauntered over to the other larger sofa.

"Your couch has a nicer color than the one I've got in my apartment. Though I guess our rooms are kinda the same, structure-wise." Alfred commented, making himself comfortable lying down.

"Where is your flat... apartment exactly?" I asked.

"Right above ya," he rolled over and pointed at the ceiling. "Which remind me, is that cactus in the garden yours then?"

"Oh no. Little Barry."

I ran to the back door immediately. I plan to leave it out for the sun every day and bring it in as soon as I get home. I was… _a little bit distracted today it seems._ California's night doesn't get as cold yet (and they said it won't be that cold even in the winter) but I just can't leave the poor thing out there in the dark alone. Ever.

"I've noticed since I came here that it's usually there in the morning or noon but gone in the afternoon." Alfred said as he stepped outside too barefooted. "You sure about taking it outside? Potted plants stay inside."

"But it's a cactus. It needs sunlight." I sort of scowled at him.

"My mom forced me to take care of hers. Trust me, they blooms everywhere." he sighed, as if it was hectic in the slightest. _Cacti blooming everywhere. Much common. So bother._

"What did you do to make them bloom? I've never seen mine bloom." I gasped (_Nay, I never gasp_). Alfred making flower (cactus) _bloom_ doesn't seems like much of a surprising thing now, does it?... Haha... ugh I need to stop with this whole monologue about Alfred and focus on my cactus.

"What kind is it?"

"Pincushion."

"How old is it?"

"About 6 years. Seven years top."

"And what did you call it?" Alfred asked in his sing song voice this time.

"..." Shite.

"You called it Barry didn't you? D'aww! You gave your cactus a pet name!" he squealed like a little girl.

"It's the scientific name! The full name is Escobaria Missouriensis." I grunted, my face probably flushed red.

"Yeah right. Anyway, leave it inside. Or if you really want to, put it in the shade outside. Also, Mom told me cacti doesn't bloom until they are mature. She got most of hers as gifts from friends anyway, so they were probably really old," he smiled at the little cactus.

"I guess I'll take your advice then..." I signed. I actually never did much research since... it's a cactus. How hard can it be to keep a cactus alive? Guess I'd rather it not blooming while I was still in my old house, too. Because of a certain_ little brother._ And Alfred had cacti that bloomed. Little Barry needs to bloom too!

"Man, I hope I get to see the little guy bloom." Alfred squat down and reached to touch the little spines while glancing at me playfully to see if I was looking.

"Don't touch Barry!"

"Haha alright! But your apartment is kinda boring don't you think? There's like nothing except for the stuffs that was already there." Alfred turned around and sauntered back inside. As he made small whistling noises (that are not professional enough to be actual whistles) Then he came close to the little kitchen space. "Can I look through these cabinet? There probably more interesting stuffs there?"

If tea is what you deem as interesting. Nevertheless, he was already opening them, not awaiting my answer. Of course.

Alfred opened the closest doors and saw boxes after boxes of tea. Then the one after that. Cans of tea. Then the one on top. Tea.

Tea is my main priority, and of course I had to stock up on some British brands. Everything else would of course be in the fridge. I really don't know what the boy was trying to accomplish, as he was now looking through the many drawers in which I put my tea, cocoa powder, coffee, sugar, and creamer.

"Arthur. You have a serious problem right here, okay? Where's all the food?" he said with an incredulous face. It make me feel bad because I was about to break it to him that he had nothing to worry about, and that I don't plan to use most of those tea for a long time.

"Have you smarten up and check the fridge? Geez." I gave him a half smile from actual pity. His face depicted the exact picture of someone who's about to break down from shock.

He ran to the fridge and opened the two doors as quick as he could.

The he quietly walked over to the sofa where I was sitting at.

"Arthur. I don't know what to tell you." His voice was breathless, almost incoherent. "Come."

"Where?"

"My apartment. I need to show you a real fucking fridge and get you real food."

"Why should I? My fridge is as real as can be! So's the food"

"You are malnourished. You are not okay. You need help." Alfred managed. "Shut up and come with me."

"I don't want to. I'm not hungry. Also, we just ate a while ago."

"Yes you are, too! You have like, nothing in your fridge! Come," Alfred begged. "Also, burger doesn't count as a real meal!"

Alfred made sure I followed him upstairs. The evening was cool as we climbed the dark maroon metal stair upward. It was really true that his flat was right above me. How did we never see each other? Probably because I rarely leave my room. He opened the door to let me in. Immediately, I could see the humanly touch here and there everywhere. Alright that sounded lofty and nice, really, but there's sweatpants and trash littering here and there. A dried cup of coffee on the _coffee table_(?). Some colorful papers next to it. Alfred's boxer on of the sofa.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look like the one with actual problem here." I said, pointing at the boxer.

"Hey! I couldn't find that anywhere this morning." He ran over and snatched the piece of undergarment. "Well, at least my apartment looked lived in."

Well that's true. But I would beg to differ if he was to say this is fine, because this place can really look lived in without the trash too. Like mine.

"When was the last time you cleaned this place?"

"Uh… I haven't the time? I just moved in last month. It's probably still good." he said innocently.

Oh no.

"Anyway, come over and have a look at my fridge. Pick out something to eat while you're at it."

I walked around the counter. The sink was littered with trash, unwashed cups, forks, and spoons. The trashcan in the corner was full, and sitting next to it is of course a trash bag or two. Alfred ran into the kitchen and opened up both doors of the fridge, showing the massive amount of frozen meal boxes, frozen pizza, sausage, cheese, hotdog, cartons of eggs, milk, smokies, bacon, half of a mac n cheese bowl, and 2 rows of soda, can or bottles alike. All squished inside the poor fridge.

"Where is your vegetable? In the cupboard?" I asked, my voice faltering.

"Nope, all right here!" He pulled the bottom drawer of the fridge, showing a bag of mixed salad that looked almost untouched and a few tomatoes.

"I don't know, Alfred. How do you live with just meat and dairy."

"Rude!" He pouted, pulling out a frozen steak Banquet box, showing me the potatoes and corn.

"That's frozen meal, Alfred." I mustered. "Also, not enough vegetable."

"Well, I look okay, don't I? It's fine! Dad never had a problem with my eating habit."

"Well…"

Alfred also showed me his cupboard. Stacks of Kraft Mac n Cheese and other canned foods.

"What do you want?" he asked, despite shoving another Banquet box in my hand. This time, chicken nuggets.

"...I think I'll pa- Oh, remember Aunt Roger! Let's go eat there instead. They are expecting us after all." I diverted.

"Yeah, let! Her cooking is much better than frozen food anyway!" Alfred cheered, then glanced at his wrist watch. "It's just the right time too!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been eating downstairs a lot these days. Almost every night!" he laughed.

"Oh...great. Let's... let's go then." I said slowly with an awkward laugh and followed him, though… I'd rather going back to my place and lie down, hoping that I won't have to one day experience an ambulance whirling all the way here to pick up a certain meat poisoned teen from upstairs. Or worse being the one to find Alfred's body trapped in his own flat from the accumulating trash or if it would eventually break the fragile floor upstairs and pour straight down into my flat. Sigh.

* * *

Song of the Day: **Mika - "Grace Kelly"**

**A/N:** The power of procrastination is amazing... *is currently thinking about knitting or paint something cute, despite college essays and real life*

Tell me what you think, any improvements, or cute scenerio you wanna see in the next chapter! You guys get my hands typing tbh xD Thank you so much!


	6. Chapter 6

_"Follow me!" I hollered at Dad who's still slowly catching up with my pace._

_I was running through a large meadow with really tall green grass. The grayish sky gradually lifted as the sun peeked out from behind a big puffy clouds floating in the blue, blue sky. It reminds me of the early summer sky of Oklahoma. My dad often drive me up the many hills with green forest enveloping the lonely road. We would park the car somewhere off the road and then venture into the forest to get a few shots of the wood._

_"Wait up, Alfred!" he shouted from behind me._

_Without looking back, I laughed and ran faster. The grass kept parting and parting, until I was out of the open. In front of me, the barren dry sand as far as the eye can see. Only a few cacti with yellow flower blooming in the bright sunlight._

_"Arthur, look!"_

_Wait Arthur?_

_I was supposed to be with Dad. Where's my dad?_

_No one was behind me. My voice continue to echo until the sand below me seemed to have opened up and slowly swallowed me whole as I continue to fall into and endless, sandy pit._

I woke up gasping. Then I realized, it was just a dream. Of course it's a dream. Breathing out in relief, I sat up and grabbed my glasses from the nightstand.

It's a strange dream, whatever it was. I can barely remember what happened before the whole running part. Dad have told me that dream is a sign that your brain is resting and reorganizing old memories. Odd, I know.

I quickly got ready for school. Still can't get use to this. The last time for this week anyway, since it's Friday! I washed my face, brush my teeth, and got myself a bottle of water as I slid my phone unlocked. Still only 6:48 AM. I went to sleep early yesterday after crashing Mrs. Roger's dinner. Too worn out from the fun; we didn't leave until almost 10 o'clock. I looked around at the dirty sink... still full of junk...still unclean. Uh, I try to ignore the fact that Dad would magically sweep in and make the house clean and in an hour or so before I take any notice. And Dad's not here anymore... I tried to keep the place clean after dad left me 3 weeks ago. Only lasted a week or so. As I wandered over to the sofa, my eyes met the pile of messy papers on the coffee table. Information of the football tryout and other important health papers that I either dug up from the big "Important: Alfred's paper" folder Dad left or got faxed from Dad. They required a health check-up, and it's done either by the school this Saturday, or on my own. Guess it won't hurt to go with the first option. It's also cheaper, $30. I sighed. Not even sure about my football guys. I mean, I think I did really good compare to the others freshmen in the warm up yesterday. The coach seemed impressed. But… I don't think I fit in too well with the new group today.

I filled in the health paper quickly and stuck it in my bag, so I won't forget to bring it tomorrow.

Since it's this early, I bet Arthur downstairs is still at home. Guess I can knock on his door and get him to walk to school with me? Will he think I'm being too clingy? We only started talking yesterday… Making friends is hard. It's like you don't wanna go on without talking for too long but you gotta leave them some room too. Maybe not then. Man, I'm not good with all this social business either. With most the people I just met, it would be bad if I don't initiate or follow up on conversation, but when I do, it'd sometimes feel like… I'm too forced. It's awkward, trying to make friend at first. Like yesterday afternoon, I don't know what to talk about at all. It turned out okay though, toward the evening, when I was like "Okay, fuck this. I'm done being nice." and just… do whatever, be myself. Arthur's attitude toward me changed too. I guess being all formal and nice is kinda forced. And Arthur is an interesting guy. I want to get to know him more! Though his apartment is totally lame and his cupboards and fridge is awful.

.・゜ . ・* [First period: Assembly Hall] *・ . ゜・.

"Please stand for the national anthem." the lady's voice blared through the microphone.

Everyone stood up facing the flag that's to the right. I did the same, while looking around at the many people ahead of me. Some of them just stood. Some had their hand over their heart. I thought it'll be funny to ask a transfer student what they think of the daily national anthem. I think the U.S. is the only nation in the world who has this. I faced the front and met Arthur's face who is a few rows in front of me. Dude sure looked confused as hell to me. I went to first hour alone this morning, just to realize that there was an assembly for all freshmen in the main hall. Everyone's separated, except for I grabbed Kiku and Toris on the way in.

"Please be seated," she smiled at the crowd of freshmen. "Hello everyone, my name is Amy. I'm M. Academy's student life activities coordinator and counselor. The information bags are being handed out. We will start as soon as everyone receive theirs and settle down."

I glanced over at the guy 5 seats away from me, who had a bunch of little bags of colorful pamphlets and papers. As soon as I got mine, I opened it up and looked inside to see a small mint. Nice! I love this school for being so considerate!

Popped the mint in my mouth, I pulled out the content of the bag.

"Basically, what we are having is an official meeting for our freshmen to get you guy's information on future events, so that we are all on the same page! It is not a freshmen welcome ceremony, thank god no! More like an informal meeting so everyone can ask questions, since I usually get tons of email the first few weeks of the year… Alright, let us start with the student handbook. Most of your questions will be answer by this book, from dress code to student misconduct to list of clubs and student organization. These can also be found on the school website. Please keep this hard copy for the rest of the year as there are also important deadlines and a yearly calendar of breaks and holiday. Next the red pamphlet!" the lady continued with her cheerful voice.

"This has the overview about the annual events at our school, highlighted achievements, and statistics. Moving onto the next paper in the order they were sorted, is the blue paper will inform you of the events for the Fall-Winter term. Everything in bold are concrete, which mean they will not change no matter what. The non-bolded, are often student organized or community based, in which the dates can move around, or TBD. You will be required to attend 5 of the 10 events in bold, and 1 more from either bolded or non-bolded every term. But don't worry, these events are very popular and are voted by student every year so most students attend all of them anyway. They are free and spots are limited. We will have registration forms ready for your homeroom teachers next week concerning the coming up event: our annual autumn bus trip in the first weekend of September. This is all written at the end of the paper, so you don't have to make any note. Also, if you want to use your phone, please wait until after I'm done speaking. It will be very short and I will be going over them quickly, so I don't want anyone to miss out anything.

"The green paper after that is the information about our annual literature project! Your homeroom teacher has probably announced the theme this year for freshmen. Overall, the school try not to make too many restrictions so students can be more creative with it. The grading rubric is on the back of the same paper. The most important thing we look for from this project is creativity. Don't be afraid to get creative, any ideas you deem appropriate would probably work but if you're unsure, feel free to contact your homeroom teacher. Note that one other big factor judges look for is that the book needs to be able to show a chronological progress so it might be a good idea to keep a log of activities through either journal, photos, or any other media available. That also so mean we want to know your experience at school throughout the year relating to the theme.

"For example, we encourage most students to take advantage of holidays, student organized events, and anniversaries throughout the year to contribute to the book. Again, we want you guys to get creative with these so do not, I repeat, do not wait until last minute to start. Lastly as everyone take their time to go through the papers, there will be prizes for the project if yours happen to get first, second, third place, or the 10 runner-up. That's all! I'm done! Now I'm just going to… sit down and wait for everyone to go through the paper at your pace… so we can discuss them whenever you are ready!" the lady breathed out and fell onto the chair.

Hmm. Okay then. Weirdly colorful papers. I put the small bag to the side of my comfy chair and start going through the small stack of paper.

"Alfred." the boy next to me tugged lightly at my T-shirt's sleeve.

"What, Kiku?"

"Who's your partner for the project?"

"Oh, Arthur. You know, from across the room."

"Kirkland?"

"Yep! Who's yours? "

"Long, the Taiwanese international student…"

"Aren't you an international student too?" I looked over at the polite boy in black khakis beside me.

"No, I've lived here for 2 years actually."

"Nice, you liking California?"

"It's quite warmer here compare to Japan. I like it a lot." he smiled shyly.

"That's great, I thought so too!" I laughed.

"Are you signing up for the autumn bus trip?" he mumbled as he carefully read the event page.

"I don't know yet… I mean we don't even know where we are going!"

"True. I'm still signing up for it. I like getting things done before hand so I don't have to worry about them later."

"That's good I guess," I shrugged. Then I turned to the other side. "What about you, Toris?"

"I don't know yet… I'll have to talk to Raivis. He's at home, sick..." he said nervously as he put the paper back inside the bag.

"Oh no, it's only the first week. I guess you two are close since you guys are always together."

"Well, yeah. He's my roommate. We live in the same dorm room together with another Estonian guy."

"Wow, there's also that, I guess. I might have to find someone soon, because I'm living alone right now…" I sighed. I kinda like my own space. But the apartment Mr. Roger rent us is roughly $500 a month on a friend discount, excluding utilities…. I mean that's really nice for one with actual living area and kitchen space, bedroom and private bathroom… though they are more compacted than most family apartment. I need to find someone I can split the rent with soon. I also want to get a driver license soon and find a part time job so I can pay with my own money. Right now dad is paying everything...

"What about you, Kiku?"

"I live at my aunt's house. Why?"

"Nothing." I smiled sadly. Man, so lucky to have relative around! Why are you in college Amelia?! You are suppose to be my guardian!

"Alright guys, start asking any questions you might have! I'm going to be here until 1st period end." Mrs. Amy said with anticipation. We continued until 15 minutes before the bell ring when Amy concluded with some anti-bullying facts and some environmental policy that the school is going green. Cool stuff, right.

.・゜ . ・* [That afternoon] *・ . ゜・.

School was dismissed at 3:00 today. I found out that there won't be required club/activities meeting on Friday for any students, and that's genuinely cool. I mean, who would want to hang around? It's already the weekend!

So as soon as the bell rung, I grabbed my bag and caught Arthur before he slip away again like this morning.

"Yo, Arthur!"

"What?" he replied, rather shaken up by my awesomeness!

"What?"

"What do you need?" he shrugged, raising his left brow.

"Oh nothing. Just waiting so we can walk home together!" I said, batting my eyes effeminately like some high school shoujo manga protagonist who always surrounded by flowers. It was supposed to be a joke but Arthur just stared at me with his cold eyes as he seems to question my sanity quite a bit.

"...Sure. I need to drop by the orchestral room a tad bit to grab my violin."

"Oh did you bring it all the way from the U.K.?"

"No. The school lent me one. I didn't have much room for carry-on and couldn't afford to leave it rolling around with the checked-in luggage. She's still on her way."

"Aww, I get it though."

"They also lent instruments to any student." he packed up and turned around toward the door. "You interested?"

"Nah, I have my trumpet with me! And I wouldn't really want to have anything to do with renting someone else's! Especially the mouth piece!" I stuck my tongue out that the thought. The germ, and the yuckiness inside those dark, dark tubes.

"Well, violin doesn't require any of that contact I guess." Arthur shrugged as he continue to walk faster.

"I've always stuck with my trumpet, and wouldn't trade it for the world! I've known it too well."

"That's exactly why I'm getting mine shipped here."

Have a music buddy feels cool. I'm so glad we had something in common!

I kept following Arthur down the empty hallways until he stopped in front of the library's many lockers.

"You already have one?"

"Yes. I have a class with the librarian, so naturally, she gave me my number and the key. You can ask for yours anytime, you know."

"Arthur you are like, on top of everything! Is there anything you don't already know about the school?"

"There's a thing called the internet, Alfred. The school has a website and even a forum."

"Hey, I at least know that much!" I pouted.

Arthur didn't laughed at my protest like I intended. I refuse to be treated like a kid. I'm taller than Arthur by like more than an inch ya know!

He pulled out a folder and a book from the bag, then shoved everything else back into the locker.

"This is why! I remember you didn't have anything with you either yesterday!"

"I got the locker yesterday!" he chuckled.

"Hey there you go." the word escaped me. Arthur looked a look different smiling. But he also looked so much better smiling I guess, compared to the usual mug he always wear on his face.

"What else about my locker?"

"No, your smile. You need to smile more, because you look...better!"

"Wha-whatever Alfred, flattery won't get you nowhere!" he stuttered while avoiding my eyes, his cheek tingling pink.

"Hey, I'm just telling the truth here!" I grinned at him jokingly.

Then we kinda power walked from the second floor of the All Purpose Building, where all the theater and some culinary art classes are, to cross the little skyway to the 2nd floor of the Music building. My art class is around first floor of the All Purpose Building, btw.

Our school dedicate most of the Music building for band and orchestra. The first floor has the choir and practice rooms, while both orchestra and marching band has second floor. Arthur led me through the door inside a large room with many small lockers. I could see many instrument cases inside them. Arthur approached one and pulled a tiny key out from his pocket.

"Does most people not take their instrument home or something?" I said, looking around at the tall ceiling and soundproof practice rooms toward the other end of the room.

"It's the first week so there's not much practicing to do. Also, we are early because I used the skyway." he said and pulled a small case out of the locker.

A few other people walked in from the opened door.

"See what you mean now." He seriously has every down. Sometimes I'd like to think of him as an upperclassman almost.

"Hey Alfred! I didn't know you had any orchestral germ on you!" A loud bang from the door, loud footsteps, and a voice follow, almost echoing throughout the room.

I turned around to find two germans walking in, the taller one waving vigorously at my direction.

"Hey Gilbert! Hi there, Ludwig. You guys have orchestra too? I'm seriously feeling like switching from football to here!" I grinned jokingly.

I met Ludwig in my Geometry class, and he's usually being dragged around by his big brother everywhere, so that's how I know about Gilbert.

"You should! We both have it. For now anyway, since the soccer season isn't until spring. That's when the actual thing get serious!" he winked and grabbed my neck with his arm into an awkward bro hug.

"I don't have anything to do with music, really. Just taggin' along with Arthur here!"

"Arthur? Ah I saw you before with Eli!" the white haired German's attention shifted to Arthur, who's still getting his violin case.

"Um… what?" he mustered.

"Elizaveta, the librarian, ya know. I hate her guts! She finds every chance to get me in trouble! Every single year!" Gilbert said with a fist.

"I'm just in her class." Arthur said with his usual collected voice, which sound even smaller next to the loud albino.

"Sucks to be you!" he laughed raucously.

"It's not that bad." Arthur said to himself and turned back to locking the small locker's door.

"Anyway are you up for a jam, Al? What do you play?" he said excitedly as he turned back to me with a friendly fist to my arm.

"What?" I smiled.

"Instrument, duh! You must know one!"

"Oh... um… I'm not really all that good but-" I laughed nervously glancing out at the corner of my eyes at his little brother Ludwig's constantly shaking his head with a grim expression.

"Haha! Don't be shy around me, Al. You can tell a bro anything!" Gilbert laughed. "Ah well, come see me sometimes, ja?"

"Okay sure," I laughed forcefully and grabbed Ludwig as Gilbert was walking to the other side of the room for his locker. "Hey man, is your brother like that to everyone?"

"Ja, don't mind him too much. And never mention you play anything, Alfred, for your safety. If he knows you can play anything, he'll find you and drag you places for jams around town. Trust me, I know…" Ludwig shut his eyes tight into a more frightening expression and just let out a heavy sigh.

"Haha, okay dude! I'll keep that in mind. Good seeing you though." I laughed it off, looking over at the brass older German on the other side of the room that's talking raucously to another group of unfortunate people. Then I realize I totally left out Arthur this whole time. "Wait, I want to introduce you to Arthur-"

I turned around, but Arthur was not there anymore.

"The boy that was with you? He left whenever you were still talking to my brother." Ludwig shrugged at the door.

Why did he left without me? Damn you Arthur!

"Gotta catch him. I'll talk to you tomorrow in class." I hurried to the door.

"Okay then." he said and gave a small wave.

…

I ran out of the building and toward the closest way home, which is a main gate. Boy, was I glad about having a light backpack today.

"Alfred?" a voice called out my name from behind me. I looked back to see Arthur with a bottle of water, heading toward the way I came from.

"Hey! You left without me." I walked fast to Arthur.

"I didn't. Just got water while you were talking." Arthur said calmly holding up his water.

"Great, gimme a drink!" I grabbed the bottle and chugged it.

"Uh…" he looked at me wide eyed.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing much. For your information, I drank out of it." he looked away.

"Yeah?" I replied, not sure what he meant.

"You are so daft. Now I don't know about drinking your weird germ." he smirked mockingly.

"Arthur, you meanie. Could have said something when you left." I pouted a little bit.

"You seems to know them well."

"Not really! My second time seeing Gilbert. I have Geometry with Ludwig, his little brother."

"Sounds fun."

Arthur was quiet the whole way back to the apartment, which remind me. I know my Dad told me some people are just quiet because they want to, it makes them feel comfortable. Others, because they don't have anything to talk about, and there were no need to talk. There's also people that doesn't think you are worthy of their time, so they avoid talking to you. I think about it a lot as I grow older and find it true for most of the time. Wonder which one Arthur is. So I asked him, relaying exactly what I was thinking.

"Your dad sounds deep." Arthur looked over to me.

"Well yeah, he works with lots of people." I contemplate the idea of Dad being an all knowing old dude. Nah… He's too funny of a guy, I can't see him all strict and _full of wisdom._

"When did he find the opportunity to tell you that?"

"Um… we are almost always together. I follow him around to his work places and such. I think I was being really noisy one day and so he told me that, and also how he's usually the first person when quiet, but at the time, he was the third person to me. So I quiet down."

"Okay now he sounds mental." I looked over to him to see a weird out expression.

"I know right? Who'd tell their kid something like that? I guess I understood, but still, it was like a serious business whenever he's being all quiet and concentrated, so after that, I try to not disrupt his work. I told my Mom about Dad and she just laughed and said that she's always the first person when she's quiet with me. That made me feel a lot better, to be honest. Dad is usually really cool though. Most of the times, he's more of a joker."

"You have great parents I guess?"

"Yeah, about that… they are divorced." I laughed nervously.

"That was not thoughtful of me. Sorry Alfred." Arthur sounded flustered.

"No, it's nothing major… ya know. They said they are too different and all but they still talk to each other like old friends. None of them remarried yet, and that's a relief on my side I guess…"

"Oh…"

"But back to topic, which person are you right now?"

"I don't know Alfred. It's hard to tell," he said. "Human emotions aren't simple enough to be categorized into three."

"I know that! I mean, not everyone is always quiet. And you can be a little of this and little bit of that, ya know! For me, I'm usually none of them." I laughed. "I don't see the point in being quiet, because there are too many fun things to talk about!"

"Oh." Arthur nodded, his eyebrows raised. "Then I guess you'd feel awkward when forced to be quiet, huh?"

"Most of the time, yeah. It's depend on the person and situation, ya know. I'd feel awkward around most people my age, being quiet. With my Dad, I just find other things to distract me, or watch him do his work. I feel comfortable being with Mom though."

"Maybe emotions are shared. Did you feel awkward not talking to me?"

"Yeah." I nodded

"What about now?"

"It's more comfortable? We are talking." I guess?

"I suppose I feel the same then."

That made me happy. Really happy. Arthur enjoys my company. We walked home together in silent. But I didn't feel awkward anymore. It's rather comfortable I think.

We reached the apartment soon after. Arthur told me he had homework, so I let him off for tonight. I'll continue to pester him tomorrow! I also need to think about lots of things tonight. Like the health examination tomorrow. Or the stack of paper from this morning's assembly in my bag. And the project that Arthur and I need to think about very soon.

* * *

Song of the Day: **"Death Hearts" by Stars**

**A/N:** Clarification: Amy, the Activity Coordinator, is the lady from Hetalia who narrate some of the stories, you know who. I find her to be a great character despite not being a country, and so here she is. Yay!

I thought I could get a lot done during break. I was so wrong. Let's just say a lot of things happened this Thanksgiving, like party, family stuffs, driving practice ugh... Sorry guys. Hope you like this update though! I'm slowly getting into the story now (lol after 6 chapters) * ^ *)/


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up with my phone buzzing nonstop from Alfred's text. The yank. I'm chuffed that we get along just fine, but our texting is really taking me off my usual routine. Text before school, text after school, text last night, text again in the morning. Jeez. Making myself a coffee this morning. I know I need it. Then I finally picked up my phone to read Alred's text.

~.oO*Oo.~

"Hey Art! Gonna have health exam

this morning, so I'm crashing your place

afterward :D You going anyhwere?"

-Alfred "Fuckin" Jones,

Saturday, August 22, 7:51 A.M.

~.oO*Oo.~

Why.

He seems to like hanging around me for no reason. Well, there are some reason, like our project; and it's not that I hate him… but he's really attached to me. _Unnecessarily high level of attachment._ That or my social meter is just not that high. My introversion plays a big part in this. Also, I'm so lazy when it comes to socializing, it's not even a joke... Most of the things I do centers around me being a lazy arse with no social life:

-Trying not to make big messes: because I'm too lazy for cleaning up.

-Try cooking at home: too lazy and awkward for "eating out" alone.

-Fail at cooking at home, order pizza online: too awkward for phone calls.

I'm so glad I was born sort of bright on the inside, since I probably can't survive otherwise.

I sat down with the pizza after the internal struggle paying the delivery guy. Oh, almost forgot to text Alfred back.

~.oO*Oo.~

"Not really. Good luck."

Delivered 8:36 A.M.

I caught myself using the exclamation mark out of habit and immediately replaced it with a period. Talking with IRL people is so different from online people. I don't think I ever mentioned, but because of my laziness and introversion, again, I indulge having online friends instead of real-life friends. I met most of them on forums, and though we are not really close, they are okay to talk to once in awhile.

~.oO[Buzz]Oo.~

"Thanks! xD"

Alfred, 8:39 A.M.

Where do you find that amount of cheerfulness. It's almost cute that Alfred's text is 100% Alfred IRL.

I finished two slices of the pizza (honestly I don't like fast food that much. Especially American pizza. Too much grease.) and saved the rest for later.

Pulled out my laptop, I sighed. Only 3 days in, and classes are going at a faster rate than I expected. I'm kinda stressed out from the amount of information and assignments to do, but it'll be fine and maybe even fun when I'm all settled in. Therefore… off I go with my notebook, writing a short draft for my assignment in Lit, a short story due in 4 days. In which I get to choose the topic!

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

I got much more done than expected, 4 pages in for the actual story, before a certain someone knocked (or hammered, which is strangely interchangeable) on the front door. Upon opening the door, a certain American, with his whole body flopped on the door, greeted me with a weary and out of breath appearance.

"Arthur, help…"

"Okay…?" I asked, confused.

What... is he doing at my door? He literally "have just gotten back" from the health examination, most probably?

Alfred clung to my waist, as I tried to (get rid of him, failed) drag him in and close the door. It was almost noon, and the weather outside is undoubtedly sunny. After getting rid of the heavy body on the floor to crawl up to the sofa by himself, I went and got water.

"What's wrong?" I asked, out breath as well and obviously uncomfortable after having my bubble invaded, looking at the rather curious expression on Alfred's face. Sweats runs down from his temples, his face red from the heat outside.

"Oh my god... Water!" Alfred managed as he try to catch up to his breathing and gulping down half the bottle of water.

I remained silent. Alfred choked on the water and started a coughing fit. Then when he stopped, he leaned forward and looked down at the wooden floor between his feet.

"Welp, that coughing part was more dramatic than I hoped to express, sorry. The exam went just fine. Then I ran into some… friends." Alfred muttered.

"O-oh?"

"Gil and Lud, to be specific." Alfred's look turned sour.

"What did you do?"

"We… Well, Gil spotted me first, since him and his brother was there doing their exam, too, for soccer. We arm-wrestled for fun after the exam. He won. Then Ludwig and some random guys got pulled in and we started wrestling for real… It was bad, Arthur. They got really into it and I tried to escape, so I just ran all the way home from school."

"Um…" I didn't know what to say, other than the fact that I can't picture that in my head any other way but comedic stick figures.

"What? it was not funny! It was serious, Arthur. Have you tried wrestling anyone before? I thought they would break my arm off!"

"Uh-huh." I mused as I picked up my coffee from the table, leaned back on the sofa chair, and took a sip.

"Is that coffee? I didn't know you had any coffee at all!" He looked up at me.

"Rude."

"I want some!" he smiled, his teeth showing.

"Get your own."

He pouted and punched me lightly on the side of my arm as he walked past cheerfully down to the kitchen. I didn't appreciate that as he almost got my coffee.

"Oi. Why are you here anyway?"

"Uh… I was thinking we should start discussing the project soon. And I didn't have any homework, so..." Alfred hollered from the back.

"You don't? What about science? We had those bloody questions at the end of the section." I confronted him. Who can finish all those dumb questions in class? There were about 5, but no, it's not 5 at all! There's part a, b, and c. Some even had part d. Who allow these people to write textbooks!

"Finished it in class." He said, the sound muffled from the back.

I almost spill my coffee again. _What!_

"You are not serious."

"Tssssshhh." A long gassy sound came from the kitchen. One that's strangely familiar to the whip cream can. Then again, but shorter this time.

"What are you doing?" I asked suspiciously, leaning back to see what he was up to.

The sound of the fridge door closed. Then a Yank tiptoed toward me holding my favorite unicorn mug, some whip cream still on his upper lip.

He giggled innocently. "Do you mind?"

"Not really." I shrugged at the cup of whip cream. He is a little kid.

"But yeah. I already knew most of that stuff. So I skimmed the book and just did it." He said and sipped on the cup of half-whip-creamed-coffee.

Hmm. Well, I knew most of those stupid Newton's law too. I just didn't remember them word for word…

"But anyway, have you thought of what we should do yet?" Alfred spoke up again.

"Do what?" I asked.

"The project, Arthur. I'm not sure yet cuz no one else told me anything, ya know. " "Bonnejoy" haven't told us anything specific, but I'm really bored. So I thought we can just… wing it somehow. So we don't have to worry about it all year."

"What do you mean wing it?"

"Okay, so like, there's many kind of love." Alfred cleared his throat, sounding more than knowledgeable on this subject. "Since I kinda don't want the two of us to research on romantic love by watching weirdly gross romcom, no offend, we should focus on other type of love that's maybe platonic. One of them being, friendship! So let's just… try a bunch of best friend stuff. Hang out, play games together, I don't know. It's the weekend. I think we should have fun." He shrugged." Friendship building?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly free. I've got quite a bit on my hand right now." I sighed.

"Like what? it's the first week of school, you can't have that much!"

"Short story. Book to finish... Practice some new pieces of music... And the stupid science homework."

"Ugh. Wait I can lend you my science homework." Alfred winked from behind his glasses.

"You would." I questioned him skeptically.

"I would." He assured me.

A moment of silent was given. I think this will work.

"Anyway, go home and take a shower. You stink of sweat." I shooed him away.

Alfred sipped on the cup one last time, then put it down on the table and stood up with a smile on his face.

"Be right back in half an hour. I'll bring my homework too! We should have a sleepover, that'd be fun! Oh, and I think you should look through the project papers." he said and walked to the door.

"You just said you didn't have any homework. And why? I already read them." I replied with raised brows, still leaning back on the sofa chair, holding my cup.

"Good, cuz I kinda haven't." He laughed, and waved goodbye on his way out.

_'What a wanker,_' I decided, flopping back on the comfy sofa chair.

But then again, I need to finish my short story sooner at this rate. Because Alfred does not plan to leave me alone, it seemed. And what did he say again? Something about sleepover?

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

Alfred ended up taking over an hour, which had its pros and cons. On the positive side, I was able to finished my story, only proofreading was needed and it'd be done. I took some time off washing the few dishes and cups, watered my little Barry, and got out the laptop, when… the knocking came again. This time, much more polite.

I opened the door, and the cons were literally at my front door. One Alfred right outside with a small case, his backpack, and a big bag of snack.

"I've got the chips!" He grinned, his eyes smiled, his hair still wet from the shower.

(Jesus Mary and Joseph, he smells sort of good, it's so weird. Is this weird?) I helped him carried the chips, I mean crisp. And then he just started "settling down" in my living room.

"Dude, this is gonna be so much fun!" Alfred exclaimed, as he put the little case down on the side of the sofa and started pulling out various things from the backpack. A stack of colourful papers that I can guess is the project's. A notebook. More paper that poured out on top, and then his laptop. Lastly, his phone from the back pocket. "So… What do you want to do first?"

"Are you serious with the sleepover? It's only 1:20 in the afternoon." I questioned, feeling like I should be shaken up on the inside. Alfred is "settling down" in my living room. Alfred Fucking Jones. My poor fucking living room.

"Heck yeah I am! So pumped for this shit! My first sleepover, are you in?! Woohoo!" He stood up in excitement.

I only stared at him. I sort of wanted to tell him it was my first, too. But then I didn't because he didn't have to know. But really, how can this be Alfred's first sleepover? And is that the sole reason he's here, project whatever aside? The project sounds almost like an excuse to hang out.

"Have you eaten lunch?" I asked, since I've had nothing in my stomach since this morning.

"Actually now that you mention it, I'm starving." Alfred confessed, a bit wavered. But then he remembered. "I brought chips! I'm such a fucking genius."

"Uh… No. Crisps doesn't count as lunch-"

"C'mon Arthur! Your parents aren't around! And don't lie that you never drank freaking tea for dinner before." Alfred laughed.

"What! I never-" I raised my voice before Alfred cut me off again.

"Sure, Arthur. Sure." he smirked, then burst into laughter.

"Well then, I guess somebody does not want pizza for lunch." I turned around and walked slowly to the kitchen.

The American immediately caught up to me, and as I turned around, I witnessed the most incredible face ever. No word should be able to describe it. None, but simply "incredible".

Alfred and I waited patiently for the little toaster oven to warm up the pizza.

"You know, I figured you are missing something."

"What?"

"The things that's missing from this apartment. Do you not play music or like have a radio on, ever? It's too quiet in here, dude." Alfred said, his fingers messing around with the napkin holder.

I looked at Alfred, baffled. Then I pulled myself together again and cleared my throat.

"I do listen to music. I just… don't play it out loud much. Old habit. I really can't get use to listening… out loud. I don't know… It's hard to get rid of." I murmured under my breath. I really don't need to bring up old memories. Things like not being able to play music out loud and such. Alfred doesn't need to know that kind of stuff.

Alfred didn't ask more. Instead, we talked about the type of music that each of us listen to. He sure doesn't look it, but he listen to jazz, country, and of course pop. For me, it's instrumental, mostly classical. I sometimes listen to rock and pop, I guess. It's really depend on the song. Then Alfred let me listen to some of his new favourites, and though I don't think I will ever fall in love with country, he was so insistent upon it, I laughed more than intended.

He ate half of the large pepperoni &amp; sausage pizza, while I munched on another two slides for lunch. Strangely, the pizza tasted much better with another person. I guess I can understand that much. It's something more than just eating alone.

Then, after cleaning up, Alfred lazed around on the sofa while I sat down with laptop.

"Man, I'll so full…." he laughed. "You know what time it is?"

"2:12." I looked down at the lower right corner of the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Blogging."

"What? "Barry Daily Journal" or something?" he said with a small snicker, his eyes fluttered closed.

I blushed a bit and didn't answer him. It was partially true at least. I do post pictures of my bloody cactus. Not that many, I don't think.

"For real?" Alfred sat up and hovered over to my laptop.

"Bugger off." I elbowed him.

"I wanna see!" Alfred grinned and closed in. "Oh! You have a Tumblr?"

I closed out the window. My Tumblr is probably the worst thing to show to a real life friend. Aka Alfred. And especially "Alfred".

"It's okay. I have one too! I will respect your privacy of course." he winked at me and gave a thumbs up, though his face was still stuck to my laptop's screen.

"You too?" I was actually really surprise. Who'd have guess that even Alfred has a Tumblr. Huh.

"Yeah, it's nothing great. I mostly just use it to pass time." Alfred trailed off as he crawled back to the sofa.

"Me too." I answered casually. Welp, if only he knows the kind of things I reblog. I don't think it's that bad. Just… not Alfred material probably, no offence. It's a compilation of nerdy books, movies, and games posts. 79% I bet. The other 20% is contributed to cute things and nature (like Little Barry! Bloody hell, I know it's not time to talk about Barry but this one time, I stuck googly eyes on him and took some picture for my blo-ahem, right.)

"So… what do you want to do now?" Alfred said, his excitement already back. In front of him, the colourful papers lay neatly on the table, next to the laptop.

"Since you are so eager, let's take a picture?" I asked, as the picture idea just came to me. "We'll need pictures for the project, right? I don't see the point in writing 500 words describing myself."

"Yeah! Great start, actually. It can be like, on the cover, or the introduction even!" Alfred smiled.

Then he whipped out the phone and quickly positioned himself beside me who was still sitting in my chair.

"This is like a selfie, Alfred."

"It should be one! Smile!"

I looked as composed at possible. At least I'm not in my pajamas, like most weekends. Thank god no.

"Aww, you didn't smile." he studied picture. I leaned over to get a glance. Alfred is really like a sunflower. Always cheery with his grin.

"I think it looks fine the way it is. Wait." I looked again at Alfred, his cowlick sticking out and I really never bother but hmm for picture purposes? "Here lemme fix this."

I reached over and tried to get his hair to stay down but to no avail, the strands of hair is just like its owner I guess.

"Yo my hair is fine," Alfred booed at my motherly act.

"You sure? Okay then."

Alfred sent a copy to my phone, then again, he jumped on the sofa.

"Hey Alfred. It's been bothering me for a while. Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure. Come at me, bro!"

"What did you write about in that first bellwork we had? I mean they put us together because of our bellwork, right? Other than that, we are… two completely different person." I asked, a bit hesitant. It might be a bit of a sensitive topic. I really don't know how to approach it.

"Oh… Yeah. I actually didn't know what to write at all. This might disappoint you! Um I was really confused… And I just… I turned it in blank. Sorry."

"Oh."

Right. Blank. I can feel my blood pulsing. So I got put together with Alfred, because we… basically wrote nothing about love? (My love for books is true, dammit!)

"Um…"

"You don't have to apologise, really. There's nothing to be sorry about." I looked up at Alfred's troubled face. He was really confused. I get that.

"To be honest... I really don't have any experience with love at all!" Alfred blurted out suddenly with redness spreading across his cheek, even down to his neck.

"Oh no it's fine. It's not like I- Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." I replied quickly, the secondhand embarrassment getting to me.

"What about you?"

"Uh… Me? No, not one that counts..." I said, a memory of the first and last kiss I ever had with the little girl crossed my mind.

"O-oh... Thank god." Alfred sighed out in relief.

"Why?"

"I thought you were really experience or something. It'll be pretty embarrassing owning up that I haven't even had my first kiss," Alfred laughed loudly. "Anyway!"

Then he was back to his cheery mood. This made me feel much better. We had some personality in common, at least. Our cluelessness. _Who'd have guessed._

"It's okay, Alfred. We'll work something out. We have a long year ahead."

"Yeah!" Alfred smiled. "So, what else do we do?"

"Um... let me look at the papers here." I said, reaching for the colourful guides.

Last time I skimmed it, there were the grading scale, a few common rules, and some important dates for required events that needed to be mentioned. Nothing too restricting. It just needed to have an organized structure, meets certain points, and overall, everything else is graded on creativity and good content.

"Can you write well, Alfred?" I asked, my eyes still wandering over the pages.

"Um… I can write? I don't know. I don't like writing papers, but I like telling stories!" Alfred said, his head on the little throw pillow on top of the glass coffee table.

"What can you do? Wait, you can draw, is that right?"

"Yeah, I like drawing." he smiled goofily.

"You plays the trumpet, and a few other things."

"Yup!"

"That might be something we can do. Include a recording, sketches, or a video, something creative."

" That sounds cool! But I really don't want to record myself playing. I'll probably mess up a lot..."

"Great, I felt the same. I was thinking that we should have an audio made, then just put… pictures or something on slideshow for a video."

"Are you good with that kinda stuffs?"

"I can probably…?" I shrugged.

"I'll help you. And also, I'm good with taking pictures. My dad is actually kinda a pro photographer, so I've been taking pictures since forever. I don't know, if we need to." he suggested.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. This is a good start. "I'll just list out the things we can do first. Let me go get some papers."

"No need. Here." he coolly slid the notebook on the table toward me. "It's suppose to be my science notebook, but so far, there's nothing to write."

Alfred Fucking Jones. You need orders. I wanted to say it out loud, but then again, it's Alfred. My words would be wasted. Let's see how talented he is then. I opened the spiral bound notebook, and on the first page, I saw a little doodles of... Newton (it was labeled) chasing after a laughing mini Alfred (also labeled), as he was throwing apples at the little imbecile.

"Did you draw this? He looked nothing like Newton, to be honest." I said with a small laugh at the silly squiggles that was supposed to be Newton's hair.

"I forgot about that doodle!" he yelped. I continued flipping the pages, until a few papers fell out. It was the… science homework it seemed. I looked up at Alfred, and right then, he was looking at me with a stinking wink, his hands going "Eyyyy".

This disgusting tosser, I thought, as I sighed and stood up to go get my homework out. When I came back, he was sitting with his laptop open again.

"They said the football tryout is next weekend." he mustered.

"Great." I said, as I try to decipher the prat's squiggly handwriting. The answers were actually pretty detailed, and that pissed me off.

"I almost forgot to ask. Are you going on the bus trip next month?"

"Are you?"

"I'm not sure. Kiku's going."

"Maybe I'll go. Better before it gets cold." I said as I tried to change the wording for the answers.

"You have a point." Alfred agreed. "Oh hey. I didn't know we had a place for the clubs in the forums."

"Uh-huh."

"There's nothing in Astronomy yet." he sulked. "I'll ask Ms. Bonnefoy on Monday and see if we can make it cooler. What did you say you were in? Book club?"

"Yes. And Magic."

"Woah, the orchestra's forum page is awesome!"

"Where? Let me see." I scooched over to Alfred's side of the sofa. The page layout was an empty concert hall and velvet curtains, each topic was decorated with little moving instruments. There were plenty of pictures folders from previous years, as well as performance recordings and event dashboard.

"It's okay." I supposed. It's the freaking orchestra, what do you expect. Also, private school. Tsk.

"I wanna go to the concerts. When do you guys have one?"

"I know the band is going for the pep rally in a few weeks, and…. what is it called again? Homecoming or something close. But the orchestra has the Autumn concert around October."

"Cool! And homecoming is like a football thing. Alumni coming back to see their school's home football game."

"Okay."

"So you've never seen a homecoming game?"

"No." I looked up.

Alfred's eyes seemed to lid up immediately.

"The football game is huge! But before the game, we have this homecoming ceremony with like a bunch of queen candidates and escorts, then they have the official king and queen announced and everything. It's really cool!"

"That sounds great, Alfred." I nodded, trying to imagine the scene.

"You should go with me!"

"I'll see."

"Okay, I found the Reading Club. You guys reading Life of Pi?"

"No. The Book Thief."

"Oh yeah, last year's post." Alfred smiled, as he went back to the list of clubs and activities. "There's not one named Magic, Arthur."

"I'm sure it's somewhere."

"Oh, actually there it is. The Black Magic Club." Alfred giggled. "Do you guys actually do black magic?"

"Yes." I said without looking up. Alfred suddenly got quiet for a bit there. So I looked up to see if he was okay. "Problem?"

"Ha ha… No. Not really. I bet you were joking." he laughed faintly with a bit of nervousness.

"Yes, it's a joke. We mostly just get together on tabletops."

"Really? So you guys just play Monopoly and things like that. That's fun!" Alfred cheered. "Then why would you call it the Black Magic Club?"

I paused. I really don't want to sound lame because most of the upperclassmen plays Magic, and that's why we call it that. We don't even have a set of normal Monopoly in the club room (the very mythology class, ladies and lads) without various nerd versions. There's World Warcraft, Game of Thrones, Munchkin, Lord of the Rings,... and many other card games and consoles. The collection seemed to have grown over the years as students kept bringing them in and leaving them for the club.

"Because it sounds cooler." I answered. It's true. "We also call it the Hellfire Club."

"Why…" Alfred groaned.

"Because the seniors said that once you join the club, your grades seems to... burn in hell. And since half of the members thinks they have some magical power that can summon the dead or attract paranormal forces to this city." I laughed. "They just stay after school late together a lot. Gaming purpose probably."

"Why did you join that club…" he curled into a ball on the sofa.

_Because I'm the nerdiest kid on the block. Fight me, Alfred._

"It's actually rather funny." I said playfully. "You should come see us whenever we play Ouija."

"You play Ouija? No thank you!"

"What? It's fun."

"But it can summon… g-ghosts…" Alfred stuttered, his head shaking frantically.

Hey, look who's scared of ghost. I grinned at the thought of the bigger boy trembling in fear over some random spirits.

"I've actually seen them before. Ghosts. In England."

"What?" Alfred yelped as he looked down at me in bewilderment.

"Oh, it's nothing scary. I was just walking home from school around noon, when I saw this really pretty lady in a white dress walking past me with a small babe on her arm. The baby boy was the most adorable thing, and I noticed that he was waving at me. So I turned back and waved, but I didn't see anyone else on the road. It was really odd, so I just continued walking home."

"She disappeared? Oh my god Arthur! You could have been spirited away!" Alfred yelled.

"What? It was just a harmless encounter." I blinked, innocently.

"No it's not... Maybe she was just waiting nearby... to see if you will look around to find her. She was totally going to k-kill you!" Alfred bawled, his blue eyes wide, his arms trembling as he hold onto my shoulder.

"I'm okay, Alfred. See? It was a long time ago. I was just a little kid in primary school." I explained, feeling the sweatdrop down my-.

"What? Maybe she was going to kidnap you. Maybe she will when you are older. It's the foreshadowing! Oh my fucking god! This is so terrifying!" Alfred shrieked as his grip tighten on my shoulder.

I'm never going to do this again. I don't know why I thought scaring Alfred was a good idea, because now he's losing his marbles.

I managed to calm him down a few minutes later (with a blanket, a cup of hot coffee with a ton of whip cream), and we decided to just eat the crisps while watching The Fellowship of the Rings, since Alfred was done with the LOTR books (Wtf? This kid is surreal.) During the entire time, he insist that we stick together (because it's safer that way, he said), so we ended up with two boys under a bloody blanket on the sofa, watching more boys (hobbits) losing their shite. Great.

I finally got away from babysitting Alfred about 40 minutes from the ending, when the doorbell rang (I have a bloody doorbell? Yes I do.) and Aunt Roger dropped by to invite us to dinner, questioning why the light was not on despite it being 6:30 in the evening. At some point, Alfred seemed to have forgotten everything about his freaking out from the afternoon (thank god), so we gratefully went over to eat next door.

After dinner, we helped clean up, and went back to continue with the movies. We got through the entire 4 hours of The Two Towers, when it was about midnight, and we decided to go to fucking sleep. That's when trouble arose, once again.

"Where do I sleep?" Alfred asked, having changed into his blue striped pajamas.

"On the sofa?" I asked, as if it wasn't obvious.

"This is a sleepover, Arthur!"

"Whut?" I asked, brushing my teeth.

"Don't you like, sleep in the same place and talk about stuffs?"

Well, that's true. Or that's what most people typically do anyway.

"I guess. By the way, Alfred, do you have your brush?"

"Uh…be right back." Alfred laughed nervously. Then he turned around and sprinted to the front door.

That's surprisingly Alfred-like. But now I think of it, why am I going along with this absurd sleepover idea? Thanks to it, I haven't got the time to do anything that I usually would have done by now, for example… continue to stay on Tumblr for eternity. Quite. It's not like time spent with Alfred was anymore wasted. Oh bollocks. I think the idiotic Alfred gene might be contagious. And I haven't have time for a shower today thanks to a certain someone.

"Got it!" Alfred busted the door open with his toothbrush in hand and pillow on his arm, making some conquesting pose.

"Make sure you lock the door." I said aloud as I checked the back door.

"Okay!"

"Hey Alfred. I'm going to take a shower after you finish brushing."

"Okay dude." Alfred replied, putting toothpaste on his brush.

I walked into my room and turned on the light. Suddenly, all hell came down to me. This would be the first time I've ever let anyone in my room. Actually, Alfred was the first friend I've ever let into my home, not even thinking sleepover. I think I was supposed to have realized this a long while ago, and not now, when Alfred is literally about to be here any second. I looked around my room, the only room I actually made comfortable with personal items (I only have so much stuff; and they all stayed in my room, as expected). The movie and band posters, my random post-it notes and meaningless texts, flags, messy papers littering the study corner, some clothes out of the closet, some stuff animal I'm not comfortable showing others (Most of them are Pokemons…) and unorganized books everywhere. I decided to first lock the room. Then as fast as possible, I shoved the dirty clothes and the stuff animals in an empty corner of the closet, stack the books into a pile at one corner, made my bed in a hurry-

"Arthur?" A muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"One second!" I grunted. Bloody hell, I never notice these kind of things until it's time I have other people in my room, I guess.

After looking around to see if there were anything sticking out from the corner of my eyes, I breathed out in relief, and opened the door.

"What were you doing? Hiding stuff?" Alfred said, giving me a smug face.

"What? No, it's not-" I retaliated, face turning red anyway, even if I wasn't really hiding "stuff".

"It's okay. I completely understand. You are a growing boy living alone." Alfred nodded while patting my shoulder.

"No, you complete git. It's not what you think." I said again. Then I went to get a towel and my pajamas to change into. Just to make sure, I added, "Don't go digging about."

"Yeah!" Alfred winked and gave me a thumbs up as I walked out of the room.

For good Pete's sake, I just hope he doesn't find my stuff animals. I hope my room doesn't look that tacky...

I took the quickest shower, put on my pajamas, and rushed back to the room.

"You're back!"

Alfred was sitting on my bed, looked up and smiled at me. Whew, I don't think he had looked aro- Oh shite. I looked down at what Alfred was holding on his lap. My mint bunny that I usual had… on my bed. I forgot about him…

I sighed deeply. My life…

"This little bunny is really cute! I love the wings, dude!" Alfred laughed, bouncing up and down on the bed.

"Yes, thanks." I walked up to Alfred and took the bunny away, put it on the bedside table instead.

Then I got the hair dryer out from the drawer.

"You use hair dryer? I thought that's for girl."

"Girl or not, I'm not sleeping with my head still wet." I pushed Alfred's idiotic observation off the van.

"Hmm. That's why I never take showers at night!" he laughed, then stood up and walked over to the bookshelves. "You really have a lot of books!"

"It's not even half the amount I've got back home."

"Wow. Hey, I've read that. Fahrenheit 451."

"It's a good book."

"I haven't read The Giver, but everyone said it's good."

"It is. I can lend you that."

"Thanks! I'll take it when I feel like reading again. Man, Lord of the Rings was good... I think I need a break before I pick up anything else."

I smiled. I feel that way sometimes too. But then I always end up reading again since I have nothing else to do.

After I finished drying my hair, I turned off the main light, leaving the bedside lamp on. Alfred insisted on taking the outer side, so I crawled into the inner side of the bed and grab the blanket. My arm accidentally brushed against Alfred's as I lay down, so I scooched a bit closer to the wall. It felt strange, sleeping with another person.

"This feels pretty weird, dude. And cramp." Alfred said nervously.

"Just go to sleep already you big goof. It's almost 1 o'clock." I muttered. I'm really tired all of the sudden.

"Okay. Good night, Arthur." Alfred said, turning off the lamp.

"Good night."

"Thank you for today. It was fun." he chuckled.

"You idiot. There's nothing to thank me for." I replied. _Ah yes, you are bloody welcome._ Well... yes, to be honest. Didn't know hanging out with people can be kinda fun.

Now I proceeded to stare at the ceiling fan that's barely visible from the faint light from outside the window, until Alfred was sure to not say another word. It had been a strange day, and I'm not even sure if it was pleasant. If anything, there's this tingling sensation in my stomach that's keeping me wide awake. I continue to think of a word to describe the weird feeling that I'm having, until my weary eyelids grew heavier, and I was sound asleep before long.

.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.

Arthur woke up to the faint sound of the rain outside. The light silky blanket felt warmer, despite the cool wind brushing against his cheek from the ceiling fan. Trying to pull the blanket up, his hand touched something warm and heavy. It was really dark. As if to make himself comfortable, he curled up, snuggled toward the heat against his back, took no notice of the warm breathing against his hair. 'This has been the best sleep I've had in years', Arthur thought lucidly before dozing off again into the pleasant smell that's wrapped around him, one he knew not of.

* * *

Song of the Day: **"Jenny" by Studio Killers**

**A/N:** Wheeee! Late Christmas, but early New Year update! :D (let's just say I only celebrate new year haha. But for real, I really wanted to get this in before new year for you guys. It's like 3 in the morning lol)

I hope you guys enjoy the little update, and a promising new year to you!

May my updates come regularly in the next year!

/fixing the typos. also, yay for season 6 of Hetalia next year! (although I can really do without the Hetalia World… "Sparkle* ugh Hima why...)


	8. Chapter 8

The bed felt a bit cramped as Alfred threw his arm to the side. The cool breeze brushed over his cheek. Something warm was against his stomach, something strangely heavy.

"It couldn't be… ", Alfred thought with his heavy eyelids still shut. Cold sweat ran down his back as he stayed still, his mind running through every possible explanation for the unusual feeling. It just… could not be. He is a healthy fourteen years old boy with no record showing any sign of bladder dysfunction. At this age, there's just no way he'd wet his-

The boy decided to stop the horrible imagination from running wild. He sat up and pried open his eyes. The night lamp was on. Below him… was, visibly, another boy, still unconscious. With a sloppy sleep posture: his leg hanging across Alfred's body while drooling at the far corner of his own pillow.

"Damn it, Arthur." Alfred said despite his relief sigh.

Not only Arthur had hoarded the entire blanket, he wasn't even using it, as the poor thing was pushed to his side of the bed.

Alfred yawned and picked up his red-rimmed glasses from the bedside. Lazily scratching his back as he looked around the room, something caught his eyes, and he bent down. Sticky notes scattered Arthur's room. Most of them at sitting eye-level.

"Hmm, let's see here…" Alfred said with curiosity.

A yellow one said: "We all come into life wanting to learn different things, whether it be affection, or world domination". Another in prettily written cursive: "The world is beautiful in all of its complexity and hidden mysteries", said another. Could these be quotes from a book or something?

Alfred even came across a piece of paper thumb-tacked to the wall. A poem, in fact.

* * *

My Broken Angel

.

Tranquil hair in the yellow breeze

With lips tightened, trembling in restlessness.

My child from the faraway starlet

Soiling away, in dripping sandy bursts.

Crying for lives scattered to the crude black earth,

Your tears unable to sooth their prayers.

.

With flickering lights and whispered words

You carry bottled voices that only rise endlessly.

Your forgiveness and distant lullabies

Now only in traces of a lovesick nocturne.

As the bell rung and your body forcefully plunged

Without even a fight, into the Abyss."

.

In pouring darkness, you fall,

Drenching your shoulder, soaking your wings.

Forgetting your halo, dragging aimlessly

Feet stumbling on long resting notes.

Only, though your heavy heart drowns below,

Your sight still yearn for the faraway, beloved souls.

* * *

Alfred had never been too fond of poetry, as most of them never make any sense. If only everyone could write like Dr. Seuss. This poem though, was especially full of images… and emotions. Alfred couldn't describe it, but the more he read it, the sadder it gets, and the blurrier the meaning. Or story, if there were a story at all. It's weird. Then he decided to just forget about the feeling and lean back on the side of the bed, remembering all the weird things that happened the day before, unaware of the small smile on his lips. He stood up and looked around at the room. A personal feel was definitely there. Arthur seemed to have made himself comfortable here compare to the rest of the apartment. Alfred giggled as quiet as possible at the nerdy Harry Potter 4 Houses poster that's plastered on the wall among many others that he's not too familiar with.

"What time is it..." Arthur murmured as he rolled over to pry the soft blanket out of the crevice, still unwilling to get out of bed.

Alfred "tip-toed" over to his phone.

"It's 8:12," he said with a yawn.

"Oh. Hey. Um… Where is your clothes?" Arthur finally looked up to notice an Alfred in nothing but his boxer.

"Hm? Oh yeah. I probably threw them off last night. I never sleep in pajamas anyway. It's too hot and stuffy." he laughed cheerfully, pulling the now wrinkled blue striped clothes out from the crevasse between the bed and the headstand.

Arthur looked at him for a long while, at the night lamp that was on, and exhaled a long sigh.

・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・

"Today, I want to finish my homework before anything else." Arthur declared straightforwardly.

"Uh… okay!" Alfred mumbled, still half way through his ham sandwich, after failing to describe the appeal of frozen breakfast pizza at Alfred's apartment to Arthur.

Arthur had finished his toast. He then proceeded to wander back to the sofa and pulled the homework from yesterday out from under the table. Then he noticed the mess from last night and started cleaning up the blankets and chips bags they ate last night while watching the movies, together with coffee and loser apple juice cups in a lack of Coke, while Alfred pretended to not notice and acted innocent so the Brit won't say anything about the crumbs everywhere. Then Arthur sat down with his notebook and started working. Meanwhile, Alfred finished up and washed the dishes because politeness(?). With nothing to do, he absentmindedly look out the kitchen window.

"Hey, can I open the window?"

"Go ahead and try. I think it's stuck." Arthur said.

The taller boy unlocked the seals from both sides and pushed the panel up. The morning wind felt really nice and cool against his face. 'Had it rained this morning?' Alfred didn't notice, though he can still smell it. That special smell of rain. It was only almost 10 o'clock.

Now that the American thought back, even he could never imagine that Arthur would go along with the sleepover thing. It was just some crazy idea he had came up from the top of his head.

"Hey I got the window to open!" He walked up to Arthur. He's writing on some music scores. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Marking my musics, if that's not obvious enough."

That's right, Arthur had that orchestra thing! Which painfully reminded Alfred of his own football tryout next week...

"Cool! Hey, I'm gonna go jogging for a bit. I'll be back around 12."

"Great. Don't come back." Arthur said, still not looking up at Alfred, though his face tingled with tin of red for some mysterious reason that only he knew.

"You're so mean, Arthur!" The boy laughed and slapped the other's back on the way out.

. . .

As Alfred walked back into the apartment's gate after his laps around the neighborhood, he could already hear the faint violin sound coming from Arthur's room. Arthur is finally practicing!

"Sup! I'm back." Alfred poked his head in through the door. It seems that despite Arthur's words, he didn't lock the door. "Guess what I found on the way while running?"

"What?" Arthur turned around to acknowledge Alfred being there without putting his instrument down.

"Seems like the school is having some event going on this afternoon. I saw a bunch of tables and some people setting up trifolds. After checking my email, there's supposed to be a Recruitment Fair for clubs and organizations, stuff like that, starting at around 2." Alfred explained while looking at his phone. "Wanna go later?"

"Sure, why not."

His focused face is rather cool, in Alfred's opinion, watching the other blond with his eyebrows tighten atop his forehead. But the violin's sound didn't sound all that impressive, without much dynamic in the notes, and more of Arthur pausing to look at the score every few minutes among the frustrated tapping of his right foot.

"Did you just started practicing this song, dude? You sound awful."

"Yes, Alfred. I literally got the music last Friday!" Arthur said, suppressing from lashing out at the oblivious comment. That, and he had to get used to and unfamiliar violin.

"When you are done practicing, wanna play with me? I have my trumpet over there," Alfred said, pointing at the little case beside the tall lamp that he had placed there yesterday afternoon.

After a moment of thinking, Arthur exhaled a sigh.

"Yeah. I don't even feel like practicing anymore. It's not like I need to have it down anyway." Arthur sat down and brushed his hair back. "I hope you have something good to show me then?" Arthur grinned

"Aww man. You're gonna love this!"

Alfred climbed over to reach for the case.

"Silver?" Arthur ask, his eyebrows raised in a good mood.

"Yeah! I actually had a brass one as a child from my dad, but I picked this little guy here myself. Though I haven't came up with a good name for him yet."

"My old violin is named Elena. I've had her since forever." Arthur casually introduced while looking at the new violin now sitting on his lap that had reminded him of how much he missed her.

"I don't know why but I can't come up with a good name for him. None of them really fit. Hmm… one second, Ima grease the slide and oil the valves real quick. I haven't play in while afterall."

"Mm. When did you start playing?"

"I can't remember. Probably waay back when I was little. But I do remember that I got this little guy the summer after elementary school!"

"Elena's tough for a violin. She got fixed up twice already, but she's always such a sweetheart." Arthur smiled, a twinge of sadness quickly came over him as he caressed the unfamiliar fingerboard.

Alfred looked up with curiousness in his eyes. There must be a story behind Arthur's words, but he's too afraid to ask. Maybe some other time.

"Okay, I'm done! Get ready to be entertained!" Alfred said cheerfully and stood up.

After a few notes to warm up, he walked proudly toward the front of the coffee table and started playing. The jazzy notes flew and danced in the air, playful, unrestricted. Alfred's trumpet was upbeat and cheerful, just like him. Arthur watched Alfred dancing to the beat.

Eventually the last note came, and Arthur giggled and clapped as the dork in front of him took a bow.

"How was it? It's my best one so far!" Alfred said as he sat down again.

"It's good. I'm not a trumpet expert, but you seem like you could do better than most of the people I know from the band downstairs." Arthur laughed. "So whose music is it? Anyone I might know?"

"Yes actually! It's just something I came up with." Alfred answered as he pretend to act shyly.

"No way! You wrote it? It's brilliant!" Arthur gasped.

"Nah, I didn't write it down. It's easier to just play it from memory, ya know." Alfred said, pointing at his head.

"I can't believe you. Well, I guess it did sounded really… you. You really did wrote it, huh?" Arthur gradually soften his voice into a mumble.

"Arg, I forgot this is the first time you've heard it! Man, this is what living alone with the only company being your dad do to a person!"Alfred ruffled his bang and laughed. "Basically, I play this same tune to dad all the time, but I just… improve it from time to time, ya know. But this is the best one so far I think!"

"That's great, Alfred." Arthur smiled. "I mean, I play around with the tune of a piece from time to time, but I really haven't created anything decent from scratch."

"You just have to go at it, dude. Hey, I'll play you something more relatable for you then!"

Alfred breathed in and put his lips against the mouthpiece. The music started slowly, a deeper tone from the brass instrument. Taken by surprise, Arthur gasped from the first few notes, then smiled at the goofy wink on Alfred's face. Of all the songs, he chose Harry Potter theme song, "Hedwig's Theme". The song that Arthur had known by heart. Without the need of willing himself to, Arthur picked up the violin too. Of course he won't lose to the American, even with this violin.

Alfred, on the other hand, was also pleasantly surprise with Arthur joining the first verse that Alfred had played, Arthur came in at the first violin's part of the song. Alfred continued with Arthur's rapid chasing of the strings. The music gradually got louder and faster, as both of them stood up, eyes to eyes. Alfred could see the eagerness in Arthur's green eyes, together with the condescending smirk. Both ended the song at the same time. The tension dropped, and so did both of them coincidentally onto the floor, with Alfred trying to catch his breath, his face beet red and Arthur, who's laughing hysterically. Alfred looked over to the other boy and joined in.

"That… was simply amazing, Arthur! Oh my god."

"Hey, I'm not going to lose when it come to Harry Potter." Arthur replied. "To think you have the gut to play it though, how dare you."

"Yeah right, Mr. 'I-Am-British-And-Proud-Thank-You-Very-Much'," Alfred faked a British accent. "But after this... I think I can confirm one thing."

"What now?"

Alfred sat up with a dramatic pose.

"I should announce that you are a 100%, absolute, pure-blooded Slytherin! Because I hate your guts and I'm of course a Gryffindor!" Alfred turned around and they both busted out in a laughing fit again.

Something that only each of them had knew, and also had never intended to let anyone else know, is that both had been practicing the song like crazy from their many respective years "geeking" over Harry Potter and its amazing soundtrack. But that, is now known to the both of them as their mutual secret of course.

The two then headed out to the recruitment fair after Alfred also invited some of his friends. Kiku met up with them and they also ran into many other people they know from school. The fair was huge, wrapping around the flower oval in front of the school. Many clubs were introduced, some they already knew like Astronomy (where Kiku and Arthur was pulled into a forceful conversation with the club advisor, Ms. Bonnefoy), Magic Club (Alfred got some recruiting candies, while Kiku put down his email address on the interest form), Swim Club (Which Kiku is a part of, interestingly), to some new clubs like the Mountain Hiking Club, M. Academy Daily, Nordic Club, Music Club, Asian Student Association, and many other cultural as well as honor societies with boring acronyms, to some more absurd and unusual ones like the Going home Club (which was just a table with an interest form, no one was there. The interest form was impressive though), The Elephant Admiration Club (there was a crowd around them, seems like they are a very passionate bunch and also very persuasive), the Cat Lovers Club (which is very popular especially with girls, but they couldn't see much, also due to the amount of girls.)

It turned out to be a very fulfilling experience. Alfred was more chipper than ever, while Arthur and Kiku formed a new friendship bonding over how they've had enough of crowds and social events for a while.

.・゜ . ・* [The Same Old Day Is Usually Not The Same] *・ . ゜・.

Yes, you've heard that right. The day would be different if it was told from a different perspective, especially from the perspective of another boy who was in great swirling turmoil over an "accident", one might say.

Arthur had woken up earlier this morning on the same bed he had slept in for... the last few weeks after his moving in. Only another individual was sleeping next to him. Where were we again? Let's rewind for a little bit, to around… maybe 4 o'clock this morning.

_Arthur woke up to the faint sound of the rain outside. The light silky blanket felt warmer, despite the cool wind brushing against his cheek from the ceiling fan. Trying to pull the blanket up, his hand touched something warm and heavy. It was really dark. As if to make himself comfortable, he curled up, snuggled toward the heat against his back, took no notice of the warm breathing against his hair. 'This has been the best sleep I've had in years,' Arthur thought lucidly before dozing off again into the pleasant smell that's wrapped around him, one he knew not of_. Suddenly, something moved around his waist, together with the blanket that he had tried to grab. At this point, reasons came back to Arthur, one by one.

'Had I woke Alfred with my moving around? Maybe Alfred had been awake and noticed me, so he gave me the blanket? No, then what's the deal with Alfred's arm around my fucking waist? I'm no body pillow!' The questions persisted him, urging him to turn around. Finally, Arthur decided to face Alfred, despite his warm comfy spot with his back against... Alfred.

It was dark. Arthur sat up and reached out to turn on the night lamp at his feet, only to jumped a bit at Alfred's grunt. The dude seems to be asleep alright. Arthur breathed out in relief. But before he could turn off the light and lie back down, Alfred had pulled him back down into the blanket and held him under his heavy arm. 'The punk think I'm a body pillow,' Arthur thought miserably, as Alfred was not light at all per se. Then Alfred rolled over again, his lips accidentally placed precisely in the exact position (god know why) that fitted the accurate description of... Arthur's lips... The heat rushed to Arthur's face at the realization of what just happened. Arthur screamed internally, but were too shocked to move as Alfred let out a small sleepy moan and continue breathing unconsciously. 'What will Alfred think if he were to wake up right at this moment?' First, he carefully and slowly removed his lips from being in contact with the other boy's. Yikes. Alfred let out a small noise, then tightened his arm around Arthur, adding his leg to the blanket cocoon. Arthur turned his face to the ceiling, as the other snuggled closer to his neck. Alfred's breathing was even and slow. Arthur could feel his own rapid heartbeat. 'Darn it, Alfred.' Arthur tried to calm down, his face against the wall and Alfred soft breathing against his beet red neck. Eventually though, Arthur fell asleep as he tried to stay still even in his internal mess, got overheated under the layers of blanket, and unconsciously couldn't care about Alfred waking up to escape from his cocoon.

・゜ . ・* (Back to our story~) *・. ゜・

Alfred was now asleep on the sofa after getting back from the school event. Arthur watched the boy's face lit up with stripes of fading afternoon light that got in from the window blinds. The day had been somewhat awkward as he tried to act as normal as possible around Alfred while still holding some distance due to the to "the thing" that had happened last night. No, it was certainly not a dream. He had hoped it was, but he clearly remember Alfred turning off the bedside lamp last night. Closing his lips together, a stupid Tumblr Ultra-fact popped up in his mind.

"Every 7 years you have completely new cells, none remaining of the body you had 7 years ago." It had been around 7 years since his first kiss. Then again, what is he doing, acting like a teenage girly girl, being all overly concerned with first kiss and such, he thought to himself... But Alfred is a boy, it probably didn't count?… Arthur palm-faced himself. Every time he remember last night's incident, he gets flustered for no reason. But the thing is that Arthur didn't recall any bad feeling along with it at all, unlike the memory of his old first kiss 7 years ago. What could have change if not time, he wondered. Maybe… just maybe, he was cured from the weird sickening feeling in the stomach when he kiss people. Maybe he can begin to be able to have a normal romantic relationship, like other normal people? What is he to say to the love of his life if he do meet such person in these next 6-7 years? This is stupid, but he's can't help fussing about it. The possibility is indeed higher now(?).

"Haha… Ice cream~…" Alfred mouthed with a small laugh in his sleep.

"You are eating even in your sleep? Ugh, some people sure have it easy." Arthur jeered as he crawled over the other side of the sofa to leaned down and poke stupid Alfred in the cheek.

Then his eyes met Alfred's lips again, and the pink returned on his face.

"I wish that was just a dream too."

・゜ . ・* ・ *・. ゜・

When Alfred had woken up, it just got darker outside. He barely remember much after the recruitment. Arthur had finished tidying the house; he always make sure to use his weekend because of the lack of time to do so during the school week. After Alfred had showered (of course he took one in his own apartment), feeling that he had been staying at Arthur's place for maybe too long, they both ate the pasta that Alfred cooked at his place, arguing over whether to call it pasta or spaghetti.

Later in the evening, they continued discussing more on the literature project and Arthur confessed that he wrote about books for his bellwork so that Alfred would stop feeling bad about his blank paper. Then they decided that it wouldn't hurt to try looking into more romantic love, saying that it is afterall what people look for when anyone mention "Love.".

"I'm sure we can find something as a reference online!" Alfred proposed, pretending to sound serious. And so they started to Google random things from the Internet until it end with Arthur giving him "the look" as he started to get distracted by YouTube videos, a "get dressed with me for a date" video to be specific. Again, they tried. But aside from things everyone knows, nothing else is found, even on Yahoo! Answer. From the idea of researching more about girl because they are more knowledgeable on this topic, just to stumble upon some of the most disappointing question of mankind like "Is it true that girls pee out of their vagina?", to "How do I stop my bf from cheating?", to "Is being in love with Loki (Tom Hiddleston duh) a sin?" Nothing that would be useful to them. The closest that they got to was "I think I have a crush on this girl. What should I do?" but it was full of answers that were either incomprehensible from responsible adults, telling them to rethink before to do anything rash, to people telling the person to ask her out, to... many obscene answers that shouldn't exist.

"But! What if!" Alfred suddenly yell out out.

_"Finally, 'Alfred, the strongest warrior of all time' found an article, 'What's love?' from About dot com . But as feared, upon opening the page, they encountered the content that's presented with such... quoted "Rosy-Romance-heart-heart" graphic on top of soft light-hearted, brightly-colored background, with a combination of photographs of cute animals in a heart frames that their normal eyes could not bear to look at for more than five seconds without being "converted"! Both then refused to look up anything further to save themselves._

_"What should we do now?" Alfred asked in a panicking voice as they had switch the laptop to sleep mode to take a momentary break for the purpose of conferring._

_"Why do you ask me? You are the one who got us here!" Arthur replied, his voice still shaky from the horror._

_They were not given a choice. Either be converted to obtain this sacred knowledge, or never be able to learn the truth about "l'amour" (coined from Bonnejoy of course)._

_"I see... You are right. I must take responsibility." Alfred looked upward, full of purpose, though his shaky legs refuses to move an inch closer to the coffee table, where their battle ground lies._

_"Alfred! Don't do anything rash!"_

_"I must go. Our future depends on me." Alfred dramatically turned his back to Arthur._

_"It doesn't have to be this way! What atrocity!" Arthur reached out for Alfred, shedding his imaginary single tear of bitterness._

_Alfred was confident in his decision. This must be done. It was the best for everyone. With great force, he charged toward the shiny armored... laptop. He could already see the end of this battle, their victory, the many things they would achieve upon obtaining this piece of **vital knowledge**._

_"Wait, Alfred!"_

_"No, I've got to do this, Arthur. You have to believe in me! I'm the hero!" Alfred turned his head around, and posed as the scarlet sunset lit up their surrounding._

_"I believe in you Alfred. But let me assist you! It's the least I can do." Arthur looked up at the hero, eyes unwavering._

_"Take my hand! We have no time to lose!"_

_Aaaand... they both sat in front of the laptop again. Alfred pressed the space-bar, and both waited for quite a while for the laptop resumed back to the page they were on. Alfred quickly scrolled down in an attempt of getting away from the graphics. His attempt was successful._

_"Thank god, the text is not in Comic Sans!" Arthur breathed out in relief._

_"Hey! What do you have against Comic Sans?"_

_"Never mind, focus on the article!"_

_._

**_What is Love?_**

_An article written by HellaJeff0314_

_Love Expert_

_Baby don't hurt me- Okay, real talk, love is... Just kidding, This guy's not going to explain what the ding dang love is, that's the dictionary's job! You go, do things, experience feelings, have loads of fucking fun. And when you see another person that make your "heart" beat, time go slowly, that you cant take your eyes off them, you just realize "Daamn!"._

_But anyway who know, everyone experience it differently, yo._

_Jeff out._

_._

_"What did we just read..." Alfred said monotonously, his facial expression indescribable._

_Arthur didn't answer. He stood up with a grim expression. Then he looked down at the the laptop with cold eyes._

_"Let's burn the Internet." He said._

_"Yes, Arthur, join me on my quest. Together, we can-_

・゜ . ・* ・ *・. ゜・

"Nope. Nooo. I would not say that. I would not say anything close to that or even joining you in your stupid heroic quest, Alfred." Arthur said defensively, despite his laughing the entire way while Alfred was acting out the story playing all three roles.

"Hey Arthur, so what do we do now?" Alfred asked, now that he had finished telling Arthur his dramatic, heroic story from his imagination in lack of useful information browsing the web. The laptop automatically went to sleep 5 minutes ago and it's now very quiet between the two of them.

"What do we do now?" Arthur sighed.

"Uh... Go home and take a bubble bath!"

"Yeah, go- No wait, what do you want to do about this?" Arthur sighed.

"I don't know dude, Jeff's a Love Expert."

"Alfred no, he's not. You made him up." Arthur sighed.

"But it's About dot com, Arthur." Alfred said, brimming with confidence.

"As if, Alfred. There will never be an about dot com page with rosy pastel background and heart-framed puppies, jeez your imagination!"

"I guess we can just follow the advice tho? They aren't that dumb. I actually got these ideas from my extensive knowledge from watching romcom with my mo- No, that was wrong, delete that. You never heard that."

"Aww!" Arthur made a smug face as Alfred's ear grew redder by the seconds.

"You'll never catch me alive!"

"It's okay you huge dork," Arthur laughed and continue to tease him about being Mama's boy.

"I'm heading back," Alfred finally said after hanging about for another half hour and stood up from the sofa with a big yawn. "What time is it even..."

"It's 8:40."

"Yep, heading back." Alfred went to gather the things he brought, pillow, toothbrush, pajamas, while Arthur got the boy's backpack and trumpet case.

"Good night." Arthur said, handing him the trumpet case at the doorstep.

"See you tomorrow."

"Yes, see you."

"Hey, actually, walk to school with me?"

"What?"

"Remember? We gotta start doing things together like Jeff said."

Arthur smiled. "Sure, Alfred."

* * *

Song of the Day: **"Feel Good Inc." sang by Celia Pavey** (Hey I love the original song by Gorillaz too, but this cover is just closer to this fanfic o v o)

**A/N:** H-hi guys. I confess that I haven't been taking advantage of all of the little free time that I had to work on this story. Sorry for keeping you guys waiting, I mean it. Thanks for reading as always :)


	9. Chapter 9

"Alfred, you are going to be late!" Arthur yawned as he rang the door bell, then proceeded to watch the other boy clumsily dress right at the front door. It was Tuesday, and the second day he had to walk up the stair to wake Alfred up.

"Chill man. It's not even 7 o'clock." Alfred yawned, but still got up himself into a pair of 2 days old jeans and polo as quick as possible. He had to be there for the morning football practice. It's really optional, but he wanted to be as prepared as possible for this weekend's tryout.

"Do you want breakfast? Wait, you need breakfast."

"We can still make it if we run!" Alfred said as he slammed the door locked and sped past Arthur to the stair.

"Hey! Watch it!" Arthur chided as he quickly followed.

"Yes, Mom!" Alfred made a funny face at Arthur in between his laughter and ran even faster.

"Why do I even..." Arthur sighed with a frustrated expression but followed anyway.

Alfred barely grabbed breakfast and then he was off to practice, while Arthur finished eating and then left for the library as he was the only one there at 7:20. That afternoon, they walked home together again and spent the afternoon over at Mrs. Roger's house. Alfred talked a lot about the football tryout as the weekend got closer. But everyone could understand that the other boy was probably very nervous for his first tryout. When Aunt Roger offered to drive them to the mall a few days later shopping to help Alfred buy some new shoes and other things like school supplies and food, they gratefully accepted.

Arthur didn't see much of Alfred that weekend, though that's just because Alfred was out practicing and running most of Saturday. The evening before the tryout, Alfred wouldn't stop texting Arthur for moral support.

"It's 7:30. You should get ready to go to sleep soon." - Arthur

"I know! But I'm too nervous, Arthur! ;" "Tell me a story so I can calm down." - Alfred

"Do you want a ghost story?"

"NoOoO THANK YOU"

"Ah well, there go the only genre of story I can tell."

"You can tell me the meaning of that poem about the angel you had on the wall? ;) "

"wha- you didn't see that!"

"I did tho haha!"

…

"Hey Arthur. Sorry for making you wake up early every morning this week."

"I woke up and go to school the same time as always." Arthur replied.

"Really?"

"Yes, it's very calming being alone in the quiet library."

"Alone?!"

"Well with the librarian in the other corner."

"Phew." "Talking with you sure take my mind off things."

"Really? My pleasure."

"Literally? ;) "

"Shut up, you don't sound cute like that. Never flirt with girls that way."

"Note taken P: Not like I flirt with girls tho :oo "

"Alfred, go to sleep lol."

"Omg you used lol for the first time!"

"Because it's verbal irony, you idiot."

"I'm not an idiot tho"

"You are too."

"Not! D: "

"Too."

"I got 110 on the science quiz from Thursday! Suck it Arthur! :D" … "Arthur?" "Heyyy" "Aww dude's mad" "Want me to apologize in person?" … "I can… literally run downstair?" "Nah I won't actually do it, I'm already comfortable in my bed yo" ... "G'night Arthur. Stop being mad at me : " Alfred, Sent on 8:05 P.M.

…

"I'm not that mad. Good night and good luck tomorrow." -Arthur, Sent on 8:12 P.M.

"Hey so you are kinda mad?"

"Oh my god, Alfred!"

"I only meant it as a joke?"

"I know! Now sleep. You'll need to be up before 7 tomorrow"

"You dont have to remind me, I know that! :(( "

"Sleep. Now."

"Okay"

Talk about pointless conversations, Arthur breathed out. Finally Alfred had ceased the texting. But then Arthur had to wonder. Just when did he also get so worked up about this tryout that's not even his.

Maybe it's a feeling friends get.

And just when did they get so chummy in the first place?

・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・

It was 4:15 in the afternoon and Alfred was nowhere to be seen. Arthur sat outside on the bench, a small book of poetry in hand. It's not like he had even read one poem since he first sat down at four o'clock. Alfred's last text at around noon jumping bumping around in Arthur's mind.

"I'll be home around 4... A drink would be nice. Please!"

Well... there was Arthur with two cold bottles of Pepsi and chips, also cold towel from Aunt Roger, who's also waiting, though not as nervous as Arthur was as she was fully distracted by Lesley's catching and attempting to eat everything she finds on the floor.

Aunt Roger spotted Alfred coming around the corner. He looked…tired with his back hunched, lacking the usual cheerfulness. As soon as Alfred spotted the three though, a smile cracked instantly on his lips.

"Hello Aunty! Hi there little Lesley! Hey you! Aww is everyone waiting for me?"

Lesley tried climbing onto Alfred's leg as soon as he sat down.

"Your drink." Arthur passed the taller boy a Pepsi and some chips, also another bottle for himself.

"Thanks!" He took the drink and gulped it down.

They just sat for a while on the bench playing with the baby.

"Do I want to ask how it went?" Arthur finally asked.

Alfred didn't answer right away, his smile fade somewhat.

"...Nah."

Aunty Roger also turned to Alfred also noticing his strange expression, "Did you do badly? Don't beat yourself up for it."

"No, I just- I don't know yet."

"When will the result come out?"

"Tuesday. Ya know, Labor Day tomorrow."

Arthur sat back. He didn't know what to say next. But he just really want to help Alfred feel better.

Suddenly, the boy stood up and pat Arthur on his shoulder.

"Whatever comes next, I'll take it on!" He laughed raucously.

Arthur smiled. At least he's trying to be optimistic about it.

"Good luck."

"Yeah. Also thanks for this," Alfred nudged the cold pepsi at Arthur's neck as he sneaked off with his usual silly laughter, headed for his room. "Want to get dinner?" He hollered back at the agitated Brit.

"I'll pass. Our first essay is due tomorrow, I have some revising to do." Arthur sighed and stood up to check the time.

"Holy shit!" Alfred exclaimed from the stair above.

"What?"

"I haven't even start!" Alfred cried out with a lower voice this time since he startled Aunt Roger, as he rushed back downstairs.

"Don't worry, it's "our essay". For the project, though I doubt you remember." Arthur patted his head in a patronizing way. "Wanna read it?"

"I'll be down in a bit. Gotta shower!"

They got together to revise the essay but it wasn't long until Alfred passed out on the couch. Arthur could only sigh and gave the dead-tired boy a blanket, while lamenting his used-to-be-perfect essay, now with some Alfred-ness here and there, all over it.

.・゜ . ・* [Tuesday] *・ . ゜・.

I've been out the entire day. Even in Geometry, my mind was elsewhere on the football field. What is Coach Sadik doing right now I wonder... Probably typing up the list of the kids who made the cut? Hopefully my name is on there! Please god! Maybe just sneak my name on the list? Wait, he should have already got all the selection and typing done yesterday's night. Oh my god.

I kept checking my phone for a new email too, and freaks out whenever I felt any buzz from it. So far only my dad checking in to see if I got anything yet.

Nothing. Nothing until third period.

"_ARTHUR! I GOT IT_" I excitedly texted Arthur after I got the result for the try-out finally!

"_How did it go?_" Arthur texted back immediately.

"_I GOT IN! I GOT WIDE RECEIVER! WHOOOOOO_"

"_That's great news! Good for you Alfred._" Arthur was happy, even though I doubted he know the first thing about American football.

"_YAAAAASDADFJSDFKJ-_"

"Okay Alfred please focus on your drawing now! We can all hear you pretty loud and clear across the yard though I don't mind you just texting quietly in class." A woman's voice came from above me.

I looked up. Michelle was standing in front of him with a bright smile, though it looked almost menacing.

"Yes ma'am. Sorry about that."

"Don't call me ma'am! Call me Michelle, okay?" She immediately respond in a softer voice though her smiling face was still equally scary.

Classes passed by in a flash. Lunch came and I sat together with my football guys, celebrating. Kinda sad about a lot of my friends who didn't make the try-out but they weren't that bummed out about it since though they just can't be in the class, not playing football as a whole. I know they were pretty sad about it though. But as the Coach said before, nothing we could do about the selective process, but to practice more and hopefully make next year's tryout.

"I can't believe I made try-out though. And I'm not even a sub! You can't believe how much fun football was today!" I continued chatting away excitedly after school was out.

"Yeah, that's great Alfred." Arthur said as he was closer than ever to being over this whole deal. I had been texting him since noon and at one point, I even referred a video to Arthur in an effort to educate him of what wide receiver mean. Arthur probably need more than that to understand American football in general though I think.

"Oh yeah, I just remember." Arthur exclaimed. "Do you still want to go to the bus trip this weekend? The deadline to sign up is actually today, November 2nd."

"Yeah let's go quickly, my football practice begins today at 4," I cheered, finally letting go of football tryout. "I hope they still have spots though! Kiku told me he signed up too."

We got the registration form in to Bonnefoy barely before the office close and then part ways when I had to run to practice. Right then, we were stopped by a group of 3 girls. I remember talking to one of them before, her name was... um what was her name again, we only chat briefly since they usually sit at the next table at lunch.

"Hey Alfred, I heard you made the team. Congrats!" The girl cheerfully giggled, her ponytail bouncing.

"Hey thanks! How did you find out so quickly?"

I stopped to talk for a bit but of course I was running late so I quickly ended the conversation. Seems like Arthur also left a while ago without me.

.・゜ . ・* . . . *・ . ゜・.

The second week went by quickly and smoothly, it's already Wednesday. I quickly adjust to my classes and especially football's training schedule, though the training is rigorous. By the end of practice, I usually don't have much energy to do anything anymore. It's supposed to get better when my body gets back in shape and is used to the practice, though I was thinking maybe I was never more in shape than right now.

I still see Arthur around since we live in the same apartment and have class together but I guess we've been hanging out a lot less this week. I texted Arthur that I haven't been able to pester him as much, and he just brushed it off, saying that it actually had been going great for him since he doesn't have to vacuum his living room and especially the couch after every time I visited and made myself at home in his residence. Fair enough I guess. Another day of Arthur just being himself. Arthur had been going to school early as always while I snoozed in, but I have been doing practice after school this whole week. We text often though Arthur does seem to always be busy doing something because he rarely answer right away. I usually expect a reply from a range of 20 minutes to even 2 hours. That doesn't mean I just wait though, because I usually get impatient and end up sending him like 5 small texts. Hey it's not my fault entirely!

Left alone, school had been kinda boring. English essay are dumb, Art takes patience, Geometry and Science is so repetitive, and Astronomy is fun but we were having trouble voting on a location for our first stargazing... I'm mostly excited about football. The JV team and Varsity team are usually together but Varsity really has a totally different feel, like they are really cool! Coach would usually monitor both the JV and Varsity for warmups, stretch, form tackling, pursuit drill, and then we do some separate special teams training. Then the two teams practice offensive/defensive for the rest of the class, leaving maybe 10 minutes before class end so we could run some laps and cool down. I remember last week when we first started the training program for tryout, I was usually super sweaty after morning practice and 4th period that I'd get super uncomfortable in class right afterward. So glad about no more morning practice! Kinda sad about how JV don't get playoffs. But that also mean we don't have to have afternoon practice everyday like Varsity does, only Monday through Wednesday!

So on Thursday, all of the JV team decided to go out and eat together for some team building. The cheerleader girls also tagged along since the didn't have after school practice as well. Which reminds me! I didn't know before but that girl I couldn't remember her name, Alice, is a cheerleader. She's a year older than me and the upperclassmen seems to know her well. Her friends, Marianne and Xiao, are also very cool, though they kept poking fun at me and other freshies for some reason, saying we are cute babies and such. Everyone was laughing and talking of mostly funny and trivial stuffs, it's kinda nice. Ah I love being a part of a friend group!

Friday also went by in a flash but at the end of the day, I got an email from the Astronomy Club. Finally we finished counting the votes on the location for our first retreat, a hiking/camping trip in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to stargaze and takes some good swirling star photography together with the Mountain Hiking Club next weekend. I'm super pumped for this star shit, like literally I've been waiting and waiting while watching Morgan Freeman's Space Documentary in the club room for these guys to finally come to a decision! Woohoo space! Also, included in the email, our advisor had already lined up some meteor shower and eclipse viewing sessions, scheduled as the club's next event. She's amazing!

Now school is all fun and exciting again! However, I still feel that something is missing. Also, I was forgetting something, maybe something very important. Buzz. I got a text from Kiku.

"Hey Alfred, hope I'm not texting you back too late but I just finished the manga you recommended. It was great, I love the main guy protagonist and they make a lovely couple. Thank you so much. See you tomorrow at 7:30!"

"Aww don't they though? You are welcome! See ya dude!" I replied quickly.

Wait 7:30? Tomorrow? Isn't that... Saturday?

Something resurfaced to my memory. The bus trip. OMG I totally forgot.

I'm so fucked.

* * *

Song of the Day: **Another Night on Mars by The Maine**

**A/N:** Yo I'm back from college! Finally more time to write. It took a while to rearrange all the details and remember the plot but I got it. I'll be surprise if anyone who followed my story last year is still here for this though (But if you are omg PM me I need to formally apologize to you asap)

New character: Alice (Fem!Italy), Marianne (Fem!France), Xiao (Taiwan!)

Thanks for reading. Follows, favorites, and comments makes me happy :)


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